Attachments
by K-yers
Summary: Heather Schmidt was Muggle born. When she was sorted into Slytherin, she quickly caught on that she had to hide that fact. When a prank by Draco gets out of hand, Heather finds herself taking the blame. When she's thrown out of her comfort zone, she's also thrown into a friendship she never would've had otherwise. Starts in Chamber of Secrets and continues. Eventual Neville/OC
1. 1: Prank

The first years coming to Slytherin were getting booed and hissed at. I watched the eleven year olds either approach the Slytherin table with their heads held high or their heads ducked. Very rarely did a new student look confused when they were met with this reaction, they all knew what to expect because their parents had been in Slytherin.

I had been the only one in my year to have been confused. My parents hadn't been in Slytherin, my parents hadn't gone to Hogwarts period. Or perhaps my dad had, but he had left when I was really little. Mum was as Muggle as they came.

I had been shocked when my acceptance letter came in the mail. Even more shocked when I got sorted into Slytherin, a house where I learned that I had best keep my mouth shut about the fact that I was Muggle born.

Within that first conversation at the Slytherin table, Draco Malfoy had bragged about his whole family being in Slytherin. Then Blaise Zabini had said something about Mudbloods and it was all over. I had listened to their conversation in silence, and when they asked about my family, I had simply said that neither of my parents had been in Slytherin. They had accepted this soon after and the conversation had changed.

My whole first year was spent trying to figure out a safe road I could walk on. I befriended Pansy Parkinson, despite the fact that she was a complete bitch, even at eleven. Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis were closer with each other, and Millicent liked to be by herself, but she was still a part of the group. Pansy seemed to prefer hanging out with me. I was quiet and just sort of let her speak, occasionally nodding and agreeing. Pansy had admitted to me her crush on Draco while I had absentmindedly braided her short hair out of her face. After promising I'd tell no one, Pansy had smiled a genuine smile and hugged me tightly.

I liked the other Slytherins in my year. Theodore Nott was the only one who was quieter than me; I liked hanging out when him the most. Blaise Zabini was closer to Daphne and Tracey than anyone else, but he was nice enough. And Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were Draco Malfoy's shadows.

They were all I really had going into my second year at Hogwarts. No one in any other house would talk to, let alone hang out with me or any other Slytherin. To help get these first years sort of prepared, I scooted over and talked to them throughout the feast, at least making them feel welcome in our house.

"I'm for sure joining the Quidditch team this year!" Draco exclaimed to our group as we made out way down to the dungeon common room. "The Seeker last year graduated so I should be a shoo in for it."

"You'd be great at it, Draco." Pansy said, her eyes shining at him. She had written me lots of letters over the summer about how much she missed him. I nodded along with their words, not really listening to what they were saying.

The group of second year Gryffindors passed us and Pansy grasped my arm. "Look at that hideous thing!" Pansy hissed into my ear. I figured she was talking about Parvarti Patil, who had a heavy looking ornament in her hair. Before I could say anything, Pansy was already speaking up. "Hey, Patil! How're you able to lift your head with that rock on your head?"

Patil stuck her nose in the air and marched past. Lavender Brown shot me and Pansy a glare before linking her arm with her friend. Hermione Granger walked by herself behind them, looking troubled.

"Where're your shadows, Granger?" Pansy asked, her voice sounding shrill. Hermione Granger also ignored Pansy and continued past. I recognized the boy at her heels as Neville Longbottom.

Longbottom had struck me as a pitiful figure when I had met him last year. The chubby boy was always nervous, constantly fidgety, and he was prone to hurting himself or others. In our first Potions class, Longbottom had melted a cauldron and gotten the potion spilled all over himself. I distinctly remembered his whimpering when he was then covered in boils which, according to the textbook, were supposed to be burning and itching. That, along with a flying accident that broke his wrist, earned the boy a reputation for being pretty whiny and constantly hurting. I had personally never said a word to him, there was never any need to. Pansy did all the talking for everyone.

"Longbottom," Pansy started. "You look like you got fatter over the summer!"

Longbottom looked up briefly, his brown eyes looking scared. But he was able to duck his bright pink face and speed walk away from us Slytherins. I shook my head slightly as he left.

"I thought he would've failed last year." Draco said thoughtfully. "Longbottom's probably the stupidest student in our year, maybe the whole school."

That was rich, I thought, considering Vincent and Gregory were standing on either side of Draco. Those two had barely scraped by during last years exams, and Draco had practically bragged in the common room that his father had pulled some strings to keep Vincent and Gregory with us. I had no idea if this was true or not, but Lucius Malfoy was a school governor, from what Draco said about him.

Either way, I rolled my eyes and followed the rest of the group.

The common room was a welcome sight. The wide window revealing the lake to us was filled with the shadows of the merpeople. I saw some older students already standing at the window and waving hello. A roaring fire was blazing in the massive onyx fireplace, filling the tall room with dancing shadows. Draco flung himself into the first green plush sofa he got to and buried his face into the cushions. I ran my hands over the sofa's surface, relishing in its softness.

I had missed this common room. Clearly, it was the best of the common rooms, and the coziest. I said goodnight to my friends and went down some stairs to the dormitory. My things were already piled in front of my four poster bed, the emerald sheets and thick quilts cleaned and waiting for me.

My bed was between Pansy's and Millicent's. I immediately recognized Perseus Magnus Bullstrode laying on Millicent's bed.

"Hello, Perseus." I greeted him. The fat black cat meowed quietly as I pet him and he tightened the ball he was curled into. I smiled at him, happy to see the friendly cat already making himself at home.

A window that stretched from floor to ceiling was on the other side of the dormitory, and I had to wave hello to several merpeople as they passed by. By the time I was curled into my own bed, the other girls were entering. Millicent went to sleep first, Perseus only moving to sleep on the small of her back. Tracey and Daphne whispered excitedly to each other for a while and Pansy stayed up the longest, trying to get some reading in before class tomorrow.

I smiled into my pillow and I wrapped the quilt around me more. I had missed Hogwarts and my friends a lot. And something told me this would be a good year.

When I woke the next morning, I was delighted to find out that the first class of the new year was Charms, my favorite class. I was good at Charms, I understood it. Professor Flitwick was my favorite teacher here at Hogwarts; he was always quick to give praise when it was deserved.

"Welcome back to another year!" Professor Flitwick cheered, clapping his hands. "I'm so glad to see you all again. And I hope you've all done your summer work?"

I gave the small stack of papers on my desk a glance. The summer homework was the first thing I had done over break. Around the room, I saw some other students nod that they had indeed done the summer work, others like Weasley, scowled slightly.

"With that said, we're going to jump right into our first lesson." Professor Flitwick said cheerfully, waving his wand. All of the packets of paper rushed to him and piled themselves roughly beside him. "In your textbooks, please turn to chapter three. We'll be starting with the wand-lighting charm. Now, this may seem like a silly question, but can anyone tell me what this particular charm is used for?"

My hand went into the air at the exact same time as Granger's. I made eye contact with the bushy haired girl and narrowed my eyes. Granger held my gaze firmly as Professor Flitwick tried to figure out which one of us to pick on.

"Hm, Miss Schmidt." Professor Flitwick finally pointed at me. "You seem eager to answer."

"The wand lighting charm does just that." I said, finally tearing my eyes away from Granger. "It lights up the dark and can even reveal hidden places if pointed in the right direction."

"Correct, Miss Schmidt!" Professor Flitwick exclaimed. "Take ten points to Slytherin."

I couldn't help the smirk that came to my face. Pansy flashed me a smile and Draco smirked over in the direction of the Gryffindors. I had already read over this book a couple of times over the summer, the moment I got my hands on it.

"The lecture for the wand lighting charm is rather boring, I'm afraid." Professor Flitwick said, stepping down from his podium to pace the length of the classroom. "But, it must be done! Be sure to take thorough notes: the better the notes, the faster you'll get the hang of the spell."

The class flew by, and in the end we didn't get to practice the actual spell. I still left Charms feeling lighter than I had since leaving Hogwarts last year. Tracey walked beside me and gave me a smile.

"You look a lot happier, Heather." Tracey said. "I take it as you're happy to be back?"

"I'm thrilled that I'm back." I said with a toothy grin.

"Yeah well, you've gotta promise to help me with my Charms homework this year." Tracey said. "I almost failed last year."

"You won't fail this year, Tracey." Daphne said, taking Tracey's other side.

Draco, Vincent, and Gregory led the way to the Transfiguration wing, the three of them bending their heads close together. I frowned at their backs and wondered silently what it was they were planning. It wasn't until the small boom went off behind us and the three boys spun around did I realize that they must've set up a prank.

Longbottom was the victim of the prank. His bookbag had just exploded, and the chubby boy had screamed in fright. Draco's laugh echoed loudly across the corridor, as did everyone else's. I kept my mouth shut and watched the Gryffindors rush to the aid of Longbottom. Some of the Ravenclaws were openly laughing as well, while the Hufflepuffs looked on with mixed expressions.

"Oh Merlin, Heather, look at his face!" Pansy snickered loudly and pointing. Potter and Weasley heard Pansy and Weasley didn't waste times before stalking over.

"What'd you do to Neville's backpack?" Weasley snapped.

"I didn't do a thing." I said. Pansy couldn't stop giggling and I wished she shut up. Weasley was still glaring hard at the both of us. I glared back at him. When whipped whipped out his wand, I made an instinct grab for my own wand.

"What is the meaning of this?" Professor Flitwick's voice, despite being high pitched and kind of squeaky, still managed to sound intimidating. The short man made through the parted crowd, his eyes taking in Longbottom's smoking backpack, and my wand out along with Weasley's. "Duelling in the corridors is against school rules!

"Weasley, Schmidt, fifteen points will be taken from Gryffindor and Slytherin." Professor Flitwick said. "Both of you will be receiving detentions. Now get to class, all of you!"

Weasley gave me another hate filled glare, as if I had forced him to grab his wand. Pansy was back at my shoulder and she grabbed my arm, pulling me away from the scene. Draco went to my other side.

"Sorry about that, Heather." Draco said, not sounding sorry at all. "But it was worth it seeing the look on that idiot's face." And suddenly he was talking about how he and Gregory snuck some delay fireworks into Longbottom's bag when he wasn't looking.


	2. 2: Detention

My mood didn't improve as the day went on. The Gryffindors, throughout every class we had with them, kept glaring and snapping at me for supposedly putting the fireworks into Longbottom's bag. Longbottom himself was acting even weirder than normal by not making eye contact and hurrying away from me every time I so much as looked at him.

Pansy told me to ignore them because they were all losers anyway (her exact words). I had just shook my head and went back to focusing on my school work. I didn't want this small speed bump to mess up my chances of being the top of the class.

The owl for Flitwick's detention came for me a week into term. The Great Gray took some bites of my bagel before flying away, its large wings knocking over Vincent's stack of buttered toast. I tore open the letter from Professor Flitwick.

 _Miss Schmidt. You will be tutoring students who need some help with the Charms subject. Please report to the extra Charms classroom, 305, tonight at five o'clock for a two hour tutoring session. - Professor Flitwick_

"Ew," Pansy squeed. She had read over my shoulder. I quickly shoved the letter into my pocket and out of sight. "You have to tutor someone for detention? I'd much rather just write lines."

"Yeah, well," I started, moving the scrambled eggs around on my plate. "It'll help me get better. More practice, you know."

Pansy shrugged and I heard Daphne and Tracey immediately start to theorize who I'd end up tutoring. I was thinking it was probably a first year who needed an extra leg up, even this early in the school year.

Right after my last class of the day, I went to the Charms corridor, looking for the extra classroom that Professor Flitwick had written in his letter. When I finally got to classroom three-o-five, I heaved a sigh and readjusted my backpack on my shoulders. I entered the classroom and came to a halt when I saw who'd I be tutoring.

Longbottom sat there, his bag sitting on the table and our Herbology textbook in front of him. He hadn't noticed me yet, and I spent a small moment watching him with my narrowed eyes. Just wait until Pansy heard about this.

"I thought I was tutoring you Charms?" I asked, causing Longbottom to jump so bad he almost fell out of his chair. His face blotched and turned red when he looked up and saw me standing there, still wearing my Slytherin robes.

"I...I was just reading," He said quietly. I had to sit down across from him at the table to properly hear him. Even Theodore was louder than this, I thought bitterly. Longbottom shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "Herbology is my best subject."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? Mine's Charms. Which is why we're here." I pulled out my Charms textbook and put it on the table between us. "What Charm are you really struggling with?"

Longbottom mumbled something I didn't hear and I asked him to repeat himself. "The unlocking charm."

I looked up from the book and stared at him. "You mean _Alohomora_?" Longbottom didn't look at me when he nodded. "That's something from last year, Longbottom."

"I know!" He said, a surprising amount of emotion coming into his voice. I blinked and sighed. "It's just-it's just that Charms is hard for me. All last year I was-I was really struggling. It's even worse now that Professor Flitwick wants us to already know that stuff. I don't know. Just, if you're going to help me, I think that _Alohomora_ would be a good place to start."

It was the most I had ever heard Longbottom say in one go. I stared at him and he insisted on staring at a scratch on the table. I felt a small smile creep onto my face. Looked like there was a bit of a Gryffindor there after all, I thought.

"Okay then, Longbottom." I said standing up. His big brown eyes followed me, wide with surprise. "That book is going to be useless for learning this charm. Follow me." I lead the way to the supply closet door and opened it, seeing that it was empty. "Perfect." I whipped out my wand as Longbottom slowly approached me. " _Colloportus._ "

The supply closet door sealed itself with a slight squeak. Longbottom gave me a worried look as I stepped aside. "Try unlocking it. You know the spell."

Longbottom took a small step forward and raised his wand. " _A-Alohomora._ " When the spell didn't work, I looked back to Longbottom.

"It's okay, Longbottom." I told him. "You'll get this soon enough. You have to say it with confidence. Here, the way I think of it, I imagine myself with a key. It's sort of weird, but that's how I learned it. Try that."

Longbottom nodded at my words and raised his wand again. " _Alohomora_!" He definitely put more force in his spell this time. The lock gave an audible shift but still didn't move all the way out of the lock. Longbottom still frowned, a dimple forming in between his eyebrows.

"You're doing good, Longbottom." I assured him. "Try again."

He finally got it after three more tries. When the lock finally slid all the way out of lock, I reached out and opened the door and flashed Longbottom a smile. His round face was almost glowing and it was the happiest I had ever seen him.

"Would you look at that, Longbottom!" I said with a smile. "You got it!" I closed the door again and locked it. "Let's do it a few more tries to make sure you've got it down though."

Longbottom got the charm right about three more times after that, until I asked him what other charm he needed help with. Longbottom had turned red again when he admitted he needed help with the Dancing Feet spell.

"Oh, that's okay, Longbottom." I said to that. "I had trouble with that one when Professor Flitwick first assigned it." It was the truth; while every other Slytherin and Ravenclaw in my year had gotten the hang of the charm quickly, I had taken a while with it.

Longbottom brightened slightly at the sound of me struggling with a charm and we spent the next hour and a half trying to make the chairs in the room dance across the room. It took a long time, and every twenty minutes Longbottom asked if we could try another charm. But I was stubborn, and Longbottom was going to get this charm if it was the last thing I did.

By the end of our tutoring session, Longbottom had only managed to make a table reluctantly tap dance in place while my chair was wildly tap dancing around it.

"Well, we got nothing we were supposed to do done." I announced at the end of the two hour mark. "But I think we still made a lot of progress, Longbottom."

"Are we going to keep doing this?" Longbottom asked as we packed up our things.

"Yeah, I guess so." I said with a shrug; I had no idea how long Professor Flitwick wanted these tutoring sessions to go. "How about next Friday? That way we can have these sessions two hours at a time."

"That sounds good, Schmidt." He replied, his brown eyes bright from the tutoring session. We left the extra Charms classroom and started towards the Great Hall, neither of us speaking that much.

Finally, before we entered the Great Hall, "I wasn't the one who put the fireworks in your backpack, by the way. I thought you ought to know that."

Longbottom blinked and shrugged. "I didn't really think you did. You never said anything to me before. It didn't make sense to me that you would suddenly…" His voice trailed off and he turned pink.

I shrugged at his awkwardness and felt my own sting of awkwardness. "Yeah, well. I won't be mean to you in class; granted I never thought I was in the first place but-"

"It's okay, Schmidt." Longbottom cut me off, glancing at me before shuffling his feet. "You don't have to say anything. You don't have to pretend to be my friend." With that, Longbottom hurried off, the back of his neck just as red as his face.

I bit the inside of my mouth as I walked inside the Great Hall, a few moments after Longbottom. When I took my seat beside Pansy, she turned to me with a curious look on her face.

"So how was detention?" She asked.

I shrugged. "It was detention."

"How'd the tutoring go?"

"Okay, I guess."

"Who'd you end up tutoring?"

I risked a glance at the Gryffindor table. Longbottom was sitting beside Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas. The two other boys had acknowledged Longbottom, but otherwise they were talking to each other and ignoring Longbottom beside them.

"Just some first year," I said vaguely.

"A first year who needs help this early in the year?" Pansy asked, a wolfish smile spreading across her face. "They must be stupider than Longbottom."

Normally, I would ignore what she said and think nothing of it. But this time I made a noise at the back of my throat and chewed slightly on the tip of my tongue. Longbottom was nice, if not a little quiet and a lot more shyer than I had patience to deal with.

To avoid more of Pansy's questions I started scooping food onto my plate and Pansy started holding court with Tracey and Daphne instead.


	3. 3: Mudbloods and Birthdays

Professor Lockhart was a joke. He came into class, all white smiles and golden curls, and handed us quizzes about himself and actually counted the grades for them. That first class with him was weird, he kept flashing everyone who got answers correct blinding smiles. Since I had read all of his assigned books, the facts about him were burned into my brain.

"Miss Schmidt!" Professor Lockhart exclaimed when he passed my desk. "You were one of the few who knew my favorite color was lilac. Good girl." He gave me a wink and I curled my lip at his back.

Tracey had a crush on him, so she started reading his books for the fun of it. I had shaken my head at her when I saw. "Trace, there are so many better books out there." I told her.

Tracey shrugged. "You might like these though. He's done a lot of amazing things."

"Doesn't excuse how annoying he is." I grumbled and curled up on a sofa in the common room.

Quidditch tryouts happened for the other houses that needed to fill spaces. Even though Slytherin was missing a Seeker, Marcus Flint didn't hold tryouts. When Draco swaggered in with a brand new broomstick with Gregory and Vincent following behind him carrying some long packages, I figured out what must've happened.

The entire team got the brand new broomsticks. On the last Saturday of September, the Slytherin team left the common room with great flourish to go practice on the pitch. I was sitting at a table, bent over an essay for History of Magic that was due on Wednesday.

Pansy nearly gave me a heart attack when she slammed her hands down on my shoulders. "C'mon, Heather! We're going to the Quidditch pitch!"

"Why would I do that?" I asked, putting the lid on my bottle of ink, just in case Pansy accidentally knocked it over and ruined my essay. The last thing I wanted was to redo an essay about the fifth goblin rebellion.

Pansy rolled her eyes as if I was being ridiculous. "Because we've gotta support our team. And because Draco looks good in green." Her face blushed when she said this and I just raised my eyebrows at her. Pansy pouted a little. "Please, Heather. I barely get to hang out with you anymore. Ever since you starting tutoring whoever."

Professor Flitwick had added a couple more to my tutoring group. I still privately tutored Longbottom every Friday after class for two hours until dinner in the Great Hall. Another was a first year from Gryffindor named Ginny Weasley mainly because she was supposedly distracted in class. And the last one was a first year Hufflepuff name Zacharias Smith, who was worse than Longbottom, simply because he was rude and stubborn.

"You're one of my brightest students, Miss Schmidt." Professor Flitwick had told me when he gave me the youngest Weasley and Smith. "I have high hopes for you, but I think you need to get out of your comfort zone a little. Make some new friends, get a different perspective on things."

I gave Pansy a look. "You see me plenty. We live together, in case you haven't noticed."

Pansy went to her knees and clasped her hands. "Please, Heather!" She shouted, turning heads. A prefect shushed us and Pansy ignored her. "C'mon, you know I can't go anywhere without my best friend."

I rolled my eyes at her and turned back to the table. "I've gotta finish this essay."

The essay was suddenly snapped away from my table and Pansy started running to the door. I scowled after her and had no choice but to follow. A string of colorful curse words ran through when I finally caught up to Pansy outside, just behind the Quidditch team.

She handed me my essay back, a sly grin on her face. I scowled at her as she linked her arm through mine and I had no choice but to follow her and the Slytherin Quidditch team to the pitch.

Pansy was talking about something or other when I spotted the Gryffindor Quidditch team, followed by a few from their house. "The hell?" I muttered. Pansy shot me a look.

"Does your mom let you talk like that, Heather?" She asked jokingly. But she didn't get to answer because then she spotted the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "What do they want?"

The two teams met up with one another and Pansy and I got closer to hear what was happening. Flint was puffed up and looking proud of himself. "Professor Snape gave us special permission to use the pitch today, to train our new Seeker."

"New Seeker?" The Gryffindor captain asked, peering at the paper Marcus Flint was waving around.

Draco positively beamed. "That's right." Potter gaped at him and behind their group, I could see Granger and Weasley coming up closer to see what was happening.

Someone from the Gryffindor team pointed out the new broomsticks. When Flint said they were a gift from Draco's father, Granger scoffed loudly.

"At least no one on the Gryffindor team had to buy their way in," She said. "They got in on pure talent."

"No one asked you," Draco snapped. "Filthy Mudblood."

I stared down at the ground as the Gryffindor team looked horrified. Pansy was hiding her giggles into my shoulder. I looked over to Granger, who just looked very confused; she didn't know what it meant.

Not for the first time, I wondered what would've happened if my house found out about me being a Muggle born. Seeing how the Slytherin team and Pansy were smirking and stifling laughs, it wouldn't be pretty.

Weasley drew his wand. "You'll pay for that, Malfoy. Eat slugs!" He waved his wand violently and a burst of pale green light knocked him back. I jerked back so hard that I accidentally knocked Pansy off my arm.

"Ron!" Granger shouted, kneeling down over her friend. Potter was right beside her and the rest of the Gryffindor team got closer. Weasley stood up with shaking legs right before barfing up a long and slimy slug. I covered my mouth with repulsion as the rest of my house recoiled and burst into laughter.

Granger and Potter took either side of Weasley and escorted him away as he kept throwing up slugs. The Slytherin team started towards the pitch, still shaking their heads and laughing. Pansy grabbed my hand again and started towards the pitch and I went with her, knowing it was easier to just keep my head low than to go back inside and cause trouble.

* * *

The fall came with a sigh of cold air and I felt happy that October was finally here. My birthday was October fifteetnth, and I didn't think any of my classmates knew, and that was the way I liked it. My birthday had never been a special occasion before, and I didn't see a reason to change that.

Longbottom was slowly getting better. Very, very slowly. Almost a month into our tutoring sessions, he was struggling to cast the levitation charm.

I threw my head back and groaned. "Longbottom, at this rate we'll be caught up to the rest of the class at Christmas."

Longbottom turned red, but still narrowed his eyes at me. "I'm trying!"

"Try harder!" I shot back.

"Surely your detention is over with." Longbottom pointed out. "Why are you still tutoring me?"

"Because you need help with Charms." I said bluntly. "If I left you now, what do you think will happen? You could end up failing."

He didn't say anything, but turned away from me again and tried to make our textbook float. I watched from my seat on top of a desk, really hoping that Longbottom would get this soon. I groaned again when he didn't get it right again.

"Are you okay, Schmidt?" He asked, dropping his arm and looking at me from the corner of his eye.

"Why do you ask?"

"You seem even more short tempered than usual."

I drummed my fingers hard against the wood of the desk. There wasn't a lot of harm in telling him; I didn't think that Longbottom was the type of person to spread rumors.

"Today's my birthday." I said, pausing my drumming for only a moment. Longbottom fully turned towards me and stared. "It's not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Longbottom echoed. "Why are you spending your birthday with me? I mean, surely your friends would want to hang out with you."

I stopped drumming my fingers and stared at him for a long moment. With a slight shake of my head, I sighed. "I don't think I like my friends that much."

Longbottom let out a small huff of amusement. "I don't like your friends that much either." He said it shyly, as if he was still nervous I'd lash out at him for admitting that. Instead, when I snorted with laughter, he smiled back at me.

I sighed again. "I don't know. My friends are nice, but only if they like you. If you're not in the group, you're targeted by, by all of them really. The whole house now that I think about it. But in a way, it makes sense."

Longbottom took the opportunity to sit down across from me, settling for a chair instead of the table like me. "What d'you mean?"

I shrugged. "First years get booed at for being sorted into Slytherin, Longbottom. The entire school is against my house. After years of getting treated like crap, I'm not surprised Slytherins decided to act like jerks before the rest of the school could do it first."

He was staring at me with a blank expression. "I guess that makes sense. But some people in Slytherin are still jerks, even if I haven't spoken to them ever."

"That's because some people are still pieces of crap."

Longbottom let out a big laugh at that, looking half embarrassed and half shocked at my language. I smiled at him, happy to see he was coming out of his shell a bit. Longbottom was nice, really shy to a kind of annoying degree, but he was nice.

"Don't you ever get in trouble for talking like that?" Longbottom asked once he was done laughing. "My Gran would kill me if I said anything like that."

"That's nothing, Longbottom." I replied. "And either way, I've heard worse from my own Mum. What I say is absolutely nothing." Longbottom blinked and shrugged at my words. I blinked and clapped my hands. "What're we doing talking? Get back up Longbottom! You've got a spell to get right."

By the end of the tutoring session, Longbottom was finally able to levitate the textbook about a foot into the air before it fell with a clatter. I threw my hands into the air and let out a loud whoop. Longbottom laughed loudly at me and looked vaguely proud of himself.

We walked in silence to the Great Hall, side by side in a comfortable silence. Before we got to separate and go eat dinner with our houses, Longbottom looked up at me (he was a couple of inches shorter than me).

"Since no one else will," He started, his voice back to his usual quiet tone. "I wanted to wish you a happy birthday, Schmidt. You're the best Slytherin I know."

I didn't get the chance to say anything because Longbottom rushed away from me and into the Great Hall, the back of his neck burning red. I smiled once he was gone but made sure to wipe it away before I went inside to sit with the other Slytherins.


	4. 4: The Writing on the Wall

Professor Flitwick gave me the okay to no longer tutor for detention. To be honest, I had forgotten it was detention. Zacharias Smith seemed relieved when I told him it'd be our last meeting. Ginny Weasley and I had agreed to meet up once a month, mainly because she was supposedly still distracted in class. Longbottom and I were going to keep our weekly tutoring sessions.

Longbottom was a breath of fresh air, I thought. While my friends in Slytherin were resentful and scathing towards the other houses, Longbottom was quiet in a good way, in the way that I liked. Theodore was also quiet in the way I liked, but he gave more of the feeling that he wouldn't like it if you tried talking to him. Longbottom just seemed to be more at peace when he was quiet.

October continued by, and the tutoring sessions became the highlights of my week. Pansy complained about how I never wanted to hang out with her anymore, I sort of made a humming noise from the back of my throat and didn't answer. She didn't need to know how I was no longer preferring her company.

The feast for Halloween was piled high on platters. Vincent and Gregory sat in front of me, stuffing their mouths with chicken and pumpkin pie and several kinds of sweets. Daphne sat beside me, and she kept her nose wrinkled at them, looking disgusted. I was sitting so that I was facing the rest of the Great Hall, so I was just relieved I was able to people watch the people from other houses.

I could spot the Weasley twins loudly singing some song. I couldn't hear the lyrics from over here, but I could hear the melody. I tapped my foot absentmindedly at it. I couldn't see Neville, but I did see Finnigan sitting with Thomas and Brown and Patil, the four of them talking animatedly with each other.

"What is up with Abbott's hair?" Pansy asked scathingly. Hannah Abbott's hair was in teased pigtails. They looked bushy from where we were sitting. Pansy was asking me, and she was watching me from the corner of her eye. She wanted a response.

I shrugged. "Abbott's always worn pigtails. Ever since last year."

"What's the matter with you?" Pansy asked, her voice biting into me.

"Nothing's the matter with me."

"Yes there is." She snapped. "You've been acting weird, like distant." She looked around to where Draco was sitting beside her. "You've noticed it too, right?"

Draco looked up from his food, having most definitely not paying attention. "What? Uh, yeah sure." Pansy looked back to me as if this was concrete proof.

"You're being ridiculous." I said. I was getting more and more uncomfortable the longer Pansy's stare was on me. I gave her a side look. "Abbott has always had those big pigtails. Pointing them out hoping to get me in a conversation is really low hanging fruit." I turned away from her and scooped mashed sweet potatoes into my mouth, effectively ending the conversation.

When the feast ended, all of the houses seemed to want to leave at once. I walked beside Pansy and behind Draco, Vincent, and Gregory. As we walked past the Gryffindor second years, I finally found Longbottom. He looked up and offered me a small smile. I felt one side of my mouth rise in a half smile without thinking and I turned away so that Pansy didn't notice.

There was a long hallway before the houses went in different directions to go to their common room. The hum of voices filled the cavernous corridor as suddenly the crowd just stopped. The people in front of us were hushed and scared sounding.

"Enemies of the heir beware?" Draco's voice rang out. He was far ahead of us now. "You'll be next, Mudbloods."

I swallowed hard as Pansy pulled me forward to see what the holdup was. I stood mashed between Pansy and Gregory, and I felt myself want to draw back when I saw the writing on the wall.

 _The Chamber of Secrets has been open. Enemies of the heir...beware._

Mrs. Norris the caretaker's cat was hanging by her tail, stiff and dead looking. I gasped loudly at the sight as a shiver of cold went down my spine. I felt Pansy's hand grab onto mine. Her face was forcefully blank, but her eyes said differently. She was trying to put on a brave face, but she was just as scared as I was.

I thought of Draco mentioned Mudbloods and I swallowed hard again. She was almost as scared as me.

Potter was standing right in front of the writing, looking terrified. I had just noticed him and I looked between him and the writing. Had he done it? Enemies of the heir…?

Professors made their way to the front and soon after that we were shooed back to our common rooms by the prefects. I held onto Pansy's hand the whole walk down to the dungeons and to the common room.

What was the Chamber of Secrets? I felt like Draco knew, but what if it was something all my classmates knew and asking about it would single me out? I got ready for bed and curled into bed along with the others, letting the others whisper and gossip as usual.

I couldn't ask anything about it without signalling myself out, I made up my mind. Tomorrow after class, I'd go to the library and see if there was anything there. That or ask a teacher; surely they wouldn't care about me being Muggle born.

With troubled thoughts and my roommates voices buzzing in my ears, I covered my head with the quilt and fell into a fitful sleep.

The next day was History of Magic and we had it with all of the houses. I took my normal seat between Pansy and Daphne while everyone filed in. Potter was still here; rumor had it that he had written the blood on the wall. Between that and the flying car he had driven into the Whomping Willow, I was faintly surprised he was still enrolled at Hogwarts.

At eight o'clock on the dot, Professor Binns floated through the blackboard and continued until he was floating in front of the whole class. He started to drone on about a Giant War we had been learning about last week. He wasn't that far into the lecture before Granger's hand went into the air.

Professor Binns didn't continue for long before stopping his lecture to stare at Granger. Perhaps no one had ever raised their hand before, I thought. Professor Binns rotated until he was facing Granger.

"Yes, Miss…?"

"Granger." She replied, putting her hand back down. "I was wondering, seeing as you're the History of Magic professor, if you could tell us anything about the Chamber of Secrets."

Thank God for Granger asking this question, I thought and straightened in my seat. Professor Binns blinked for a long moment.

"The story goes that Salazar Slytherin had built a chamber somewhere in the castle, of which the other founders knew nothing." Professor Binns droned, but it was the most interested the class had ever been in anything he had to say. "Slytherin, according to legend, sealed the Chamber of Secrets so that none would be able to open it until his true heir arrived at the school. The heir alone would be able to unseal the Chamber of Secrets, unleash the horror within, and use it to purge the school of all those who were unworthy to study magic."

There was a hushed silence. Professor Binns opened his mouth to continue when Dean Thomas's hand shot into the air. Professor Binns called on him.

"Who did Salazar Slytherin think were unworthy of studying magic?" Thomas asked. Draco scoffed into his sleeves.

Professor Binns rotated until he faced Thomas. "Salazar Slytherin believed that only pure blooded students should study magic. Muggle born students wouldn't be tolerated. The beast that is supposedly inside the Chamber of Secrets, was supposed to purge the school of any student with Muggle blood."

My blood turned to ice and I shifted in my seat subtly so that Pansy and Daphne didn't notice. Thomas looked like he regretted asking and Granger's face had turned pale.

"I assure you, children," Professor Binns said with a massive eye roll. "The Chamber of Secrets is a legend, a myth. People have searched for centuries trying to find it, and no one ever has. Therefore, it does not exist and you all need not worry about it. Now, we must get back to our lesson."

Professor Binns went right back to his lecture and within five minutes, half the class was asleep.


	5. 5: A Rogue Bludger

In the Slytherin common room, it was as if the writing on the wall never happened. None of the other Slytherins were particularly worried about it, and I even caught Marcus Flint doing a reenactment of some of the Hufflepuffs being scared of the writing on the wall. Pansy laughed along with the rest of the crowd, even though I remembered seeing her be scared too when we first saw it.

The Slytherin Quidditch match against Gryffindor was coming up soon, and that's what our house decided to put focus on. It was all Draco talked about for weeks leading up to the match. Marcus was leading some pretty intense practices, I overheard Miles Bletchley and Adrian Pucey talking about how Marcus had gone insane and was out for Gryffindor blood.

I only went to one of the practices, to watch Draco along with the rest of our friend group. He was really good, actually. The two Beaters took turns throwing walnuts everywhere and Draco caught every one. Marcus had the other Chasers doing barrel rolls and dives several times. I watched and wished I had been able to try out. Maybe next year, I thought to myself. The two Beaters and Adrian and the other Chaser were all graduating so Marcus would have no choice but do tryouts. I made a mental note to myself that I'd have to start practicing Quidditch.

The Quidditch match was the first weekend in November. I spent that Friday afternoon with Longbottom as we finally started going over the Charms that were taught in second year. Longbottom was pretty good, once he got past his own shyness and nerves about performing magic.

"Soon I won't need you at all." He told me that Friday after our tutoring session.

I gasped way too loudly and placed a hand on my chest. "Longbottom! And I thought we were friends!"

He let out a nervous sounding laugh. "We are friends!" I laughed lightly at him as we gathered our stuff and started for the Great Hall.

Longbottom was nice to be around, I decided. I laughed more when I was with him, a lot more than when I was with Pansy and the others. I sure made a lot more jokes with him than with my Slytherin friends.

"Oh, good luck with the Quidditch game tomorrow." Longbottom said as we rounded the corner to the Great Hall. "I know you don't play, but it is Slytherin playing…" He trailed off, as if the thought escaped him.

I shrugged. "Thanks for that. Though hopefully I can play next year; I think it'll be fun."

Longbottom shook his head. "You do that. I think I'd end up dead if I even tried out for Quidditch. If the game didn't kill me, Gran would."

"Gran sounds strict."

"She is." Longbottom said, giving me a look. "She once grounded me from visiting any relatives for a month because I complained at one of her friends' houses."

Despite the fact that I had seen and heard of worse punishments, I shook my head at the sound of that. "Harsh, Gran." I said. Longbottom let out a small laugh and we separated to go into the Great Hall. I waited for a couple of minutes before going inside after him.

The next day I put on a dark gray hoodie and green and silver Slytherin scarf. Daphne, who was really good at makeup and hair, was offering to curl hair for the game. I watched as she pulled her bright blond hair into a ponytail and curled her hair so that it bounced around with every step she took. Pansy was excited to get her own dark locks curled, and even Millicent was convinced to at least get subtle curls.

"My hair's already curly." I said dryly when Daphne approached me. Daphne narrowed her eyes at the mass of curls on my head and nodded.

"True." Daphne said. "But hold on, come here. If Millie would let me touch her hair, you should too." She didn't bother making my curly hair even curlier, but she did pull it halfway up with a green ribbon. "Now you look like you have house spirit!"

We marched out to the Quidditch pitch together. Pansy walked with Tracey, the two of them talking crap about some of the older Ravenclaw girls who were walking a little ways in front of us. I walked along with Daphne and Millicent, who was telling us about a class we'd be able to take next year.

"Care for Magical Creatures would be awesome." Millicent was saying. "Next year when we get extra classes, I'm for sure taking it."

"D'you know what you want to do after graduating, Millie?" Daphne asked from my other side. "I mean, I know we're only second years but it's never too early to-"

"I want to be a magizoologist." Millicent answered without hesitation. "We went to America last summer for holiday, and we got to see a real life thunderbird! It was…" She trailed off, her eyes bright and I smiled at the passion she had for magical creatures.

Millicent talked more about her trip to America and thunderbirds while we walked up the steps and into our seats at the pitch. "And that's why I want a pet thunderbird." Millicent finished.

"Can I have one of those thunderbirds?" I asked, taking my seat beside Millicent.

She shook her head. "They're a protected species, Heather."

When the stands were filled up, the game began with a flash. I leaned forward in my seat, my eyes following the Chasers from both teams as they zipped across the pitch. Potter and Draco were both flying carefully high above the rest of their teams, both searching for the Snitch. Potter dodged a Bludger a few times and suddenly he was diving away from it.

I frowned up at the Bludger as Potter flew fast away from it. "What in the world?" I muttered, watching the Bludger target only Potter. I wasn't the only one who had noticed; several people were pointing and calling out for him.

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Potter's the center of attention again." She grumbled.

"True but I don't think Bludgers are supposed to be doing that." I said, watching Potter and the Bludger and ignoring the rest of the game going on.

"Somebody tampered with that Bludger!" A boy I didn't know from Ravenclaw shouted.

Potter went into another dive and landed on the terf, holding his hand over his head and showing that he had caught the Snitch. Pansy groaned loudly and I started down the steps with everyone else. The Bludger was still trying to crush Potter.

We got down to the pitch around the time that the Bludger was destroyed and we got close enough to see that Potter's arm had been broken.

"Ha!" Pansy said meanly, earning a sharp elbow from Tracey, who hissed something about not being rude. Rude and Pansy went hand in hand though.

We stayed far enough away as Professor Lockhart rushed forward, loudly proclaiming that he'd be able to help. I frowned as the professor waved his wand with a flash of pale green light. There was a pause before Potter's arm suddenly started flopping around like it was made of rubber. I covered my mouth to hide my laughter as the word spread like wildfire-the bones had been removed from his arm.

"That's awful!" Tracey squealed, covering her eyes. Pansy was doubled over laughing, and didn't bother straightening up when Potter was escorted past by the Gryffindor team. I finished laughing as they passed.

"That's awful but it's kind of funny in a messed up way." I told Tracey. She shrugged and we started back towards the castle.


	6. 6: The Dueling Club

There was another attack last night, a Gryffindor first year named Colin Creevey. I vaguely remembered the boy; he was the one who followed Potter around with a Muggle camera. I felt a big pang of fear-this wasn't a cat, this was a Muggle born student. And just by listening to Draco, I figured it was only a matter of time before a Muggle born died.

What was petrifying the Muggle borns? And whatever it was, did it know about me? Did the monster of Slytherin know that a Muggle born was among the Slytherins, hiding in plain sight? The thought made me nervous and I spent all of that night tossing and turning in bed. moonlight shone from above water, sending shimmering light into the room through the window.

A poster on the common rooms bulletin board. Professor Lockhart was starting a dueling club, it looked like. I stared at it along with a few other older students.

Graham Montague and Cassius Warrington were two fourth years who mainly kept to themselves. They were close with each other, though I had seen them hanging out with a couple of Hufflepuff fourth years. Graham was shaking his head at the sign up sheet.

"He's completely ridiculous." Graham was saying. "Who the hell is going to sign up for this?"

Cassius shrugged. "I might. He's done a lot of awesome things, even if he is a loser." I walked away at that point as Cassius and Graham argued with each other.

My entire friend group signed up for the dueling club, and the Christmas list of who was staying at Hogwarts this year came out the day after that. I was the first of the Slytherins to sign up to stay here over the Christmas holidays. Mum wouldn't expect me home and she wouldn't be happy to see me come home before schedule.

First years started traveling in tight packs, as if they were afraid of being attacked at any moment. I frowned at them every time I saw this: not all of them were Muggle born, surely. Maybe they didn't know, I thought, that was entirely possible.

There was also a sort of black market for amulets and tokens to ward off the evil monster, whatever it was. Longbottom surprised me by showing up to a tutoring session with a pointed purple crystal, an evil smelling green onion, and rotting newt tail.

"Longbottom, I don't think any of that stuff will work." I told him. "Aren't you a pureblood anyway?"

Longbottom pushed the items to the edge of the table. "Doesn't matter, I think. I'm half a Squib anyway." While he wasn't looking, I put the purple crystal into my pocket until the end of the lesson.

At the beginning of December, we went to Potions as usual. I sat beside Pansy as we worked on our Swelling Solutions. My potion was good looking, if not a little runny. I glanced over to Longbottom, who was sweating and looking nervous. I frowned to myself and figured that maybe Longbottom and I could help each other out with subjects other than Charms.

All of a sudden, Gregory's cauldron exploded.

I let out a sharp scream along with everyone else nearby. The hot potion splashed onto my arm, as I had accidentally shielded Pansy from the worst of the splash. My arm started to swell through my uniform. Draco had gotten a face full of it and his nose was growing like a balloon. And Gregory was covering his face with his hands, which had grown to the size of dinner plates.

Through the chaos and pain of my arm's skin tightening and expanding and Professor Snape trying to restore the calm of the screaming students, I saw something that stuck out.

Granger was creeping inside the closet that was Professor Snape's private stores.

"Professor!" Pansy called out. "Heather got hurt too! Professor!"

Before Professor Snape came over to me, I spotted Granger creep out of the storage room. But the Professor Snape blocked my view and I offered my arm to him, sniffing my runny nose and tears from the pain finally falling. Professor Snape did some sort of Deflating Draught and when the swelling went down, he said, "You'll feel better, Miss Schmidt. Calm down."

Other people had been splashed, mostly Slytherins. Theodore's lips had been swelled up so that he couldn't speak even if he had wanted to. Vincent's arm was dragging him down so that he could barely walk.

When the various swellings went down, Professor Snape swooped over to Gregory's cauldron and picked up a firecracker. He looked around at the class dangerously. "If I ever find out who did this," He whispered. "I shall make sure that person is expelled."

A week later, it was time for the duelling clubs first meeting. At eight o'clock that evening, I went with my friends to the Great Hall. The long tables had vanished and Professors Lockhart and Snape stood side by side in the center. Professor Snape looked bored and Lockhart was beaming at everyone who walked through.

"Gather round!" Lockhart shouted. "Gather round! Can you all hear me? Can you all see me? Good! Now, Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little dueling club, in case you're ever in the need to defend yourself as I have done countless times-for more details be sure to check my entire published works.

"Let me introduce my assistant, Professor Snape!" Lockhart swung his arm to give a grand entrance to Professor Snape, who looked very annoyed. "He knows a tiny bit about dueling himself, so he's agreed to do a demonstration before we begin. Don't worry, youngsters, you'll still have your Potions professor by the end of it."

Lockhart and Snape turned to face each other and they bowed. They raised their wands like swords in front of them.

"On the count of three," Lockhart announced. "We will cast our spells at each other, obviously we won't be able to kill. One-two-three!"

Both of them swung their wands and fired at each other. There was a flash of scarlet light and Lockhart was knocked off his feet, his wand arching high in the air. I let out a hiss of excitement when I recognized the Disarming Charm, one of the spells we were supposed to be learning this year in Charms.

Lockhart got to his feet rather unsteadily. "There you have it! That was the Disarming Charm! As you see-I've lost my wand-oh! Thank you, Miss Brown. Though Professor Snape, it was pretty obvious what you were going to do."

Snape looked like he could murder Lockhart and I would be lying if I had said I disagreed with him. Lockhart finally said, "Enough demonstration! I'm going to come amongst you and put you into pairs."

They moved through the crowd and started putting us into pairs. Pansy was put with Hannah Abbott, and I saw Longbottom across the room getting paired off with a Hufflepuff boy named Justin Finch-Fletchley.

"Miss Bulstrode," Professor Snape said, finally getting to us. "Partner with Miss Granger. Miss Schmidt, go to Miss Patil."

I blinked. "Which one, sir?"

Professor Snape raised an eyebrow at me. "The Gryffindor one."

Parvarti Patil narrowed her eyes and glared hard at me when we finally got to each other. Lockhart cried out that we needed to face each other. Patil fully faced me, distrust in every aspect of her face.

"Wands at the ready!" Lockhart called out. "When I count to three, cast your charms to disarm-only to disarm-we don't want any accidents. One-two-three!"

" _Expelliarmus_!" Patil and I both shouted at the same time. Two bright flashes of red happened and I felt my wand get yanked from my hand as I landed hard on my butt. Patil let out a cry of pain as she landed hard on her side. Her wand was gone too.

All over, people were having less than ideal results. Longbottom and Finch-Fletchley were both lying on the ground, panting. Weasley was holding up and ash-faced Finnigan. Millicent had wrestled Granger to the ground and had her head in a headlock.

I got up as the two were separated and picked up the two wands, pocketing my own and handing the other to Patil. She took it back with distrust in her eyes.

"I don't like what you're doing." She said bluntly.

"Helping you?" I asked dryly.

"No." She snapped. "Hanging out with Neville."

I stared at her. How the hell did she know about that? She rolled her eyes at me. "Neville's not the most secretive, you know. It only took a couple of weeks of asking him before he said you were tutoring him in Charms."

"Who all knows?" I asked, my voice sounding lower than I thought it would have been.

"Just me and Lavender and Dean and Seamus." Patil counted them off on her fingers. "I'm assuming none of your friends know about it. Can't imagine they wouldn't be keeping quiet about it. But whatever, just don't hurt Neville. He's our friend, and he's a bit more trusting than he should be."

I thought about how Longbottom was whenever I was with him. How he was quietly confident in what he knew, and questioned more than I had originally given him credit for. I found myself thinking that maybe Patil and the rest of his Gryffindor friends didn't know him as well as they thought they did.

"Longbottom and I are just working on Charm." I told her as the other students started gathering in the center of the room. "He's getting good at it, just needs more faith put in him." With that, I turned on my heel and left Patil and joined the rest of our peers in the crowd.

Draco and Potter were dueling. I just joined the crowd when a snake was launched out of Draco's wand and towards the people standing nearby. Finch-Fletchley was the one closest to the snake.

There was a sudden low and horrible sounding strangled hiss coming from...Potter. I stared in shock as Potter edged towards the snake, speaking to it in that strangled hiss. The snake turned away from Finch-Fletchley and towards Potter, completely docile now.

Potter looked to Finch-Fletchley, who looked terrified and angry. "What're you playing at?" The Hufflepuff shouted before running out of the Great Hall altogether. Professor Snape stepped forward and raised his wand, the snake disappearing with a puff of black smoke. Weasley grabbed Potter by the sleeve and tugged him away, leaving the rest of the hall staring after him in shock.

Harry Potter was a Parselmouth.


	7. 7: Polyjuice Potions

It almost seemed too unreal to be true. Potter being the heir of Slytherin was a ridiculous rumor at first, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt uneasy about it. He was a Parselmouth, and he has been seen at the scene of the crime at the first attack, the one with the writing on the wall.

The moment I started talking about how Potter could be the heir of Slytherin, Draco had narrowed his eyes at me. "That's stupid, Heather." He snapped at me. "Potter's not the heir."

I narrowed my eyes right back at him. "Then who do you think is the heir, Draco?"

Draco didn't reply but did look considerably more grumpy for the rest of the afternoon.

The next week, another Muggle born was attacked. Justin Finch-Fletchley, the boy who had the snake set on him during the dueling club, was found by (who else) Potter. Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor, was also found in a sort of Petrified state. Now it seemed like nobody was safe. The Bloody Baron was the only ghost that didn't look terrified of the monster, whatever it was.

Christmas holidays was getting closer and I was eagerly awaiting the two weeks in which almost everybody would be gone from the castle. But professors were getting more strict, throwing more assignments at us. I struggled to keep on top of these homework assignments, spending almost all my time in either the library, the Slytherin common room, or the extra Charms classroom with Longbottom.

Pansy appeared to have stopped asking why I was acting distant from her, and she started spending more time with Tracey and Daphne. I felt more relieved than I was ready to admit that she was making new friends.

One night in the library, I looked up from my Defense Against the Dark Arts essay about gnomes to the sound of someone knocking over a pile of books. Ron Weasley was hurrying to leave the toppled pile, as if trying to act as if he wasn't the one who knocked them over. I rolled my eyes and went back to my essay.

"Is this the best meeting spot?" Weasley's voice asked from the other side of the shelf. I glared at the spot his voice was coming from. "It's too quiet! Shouldn't we be in the bathroom?"

Who the hell was he talking to?

"I'm doing homework." Granger's voice replied loftily. "You both should be doing yours as well. But I needed to tell you both really fast that you need to get the hairs."

"We already had an idea of that, Hermione." Potter whispered. "When will the potion be finished?"

"It'll be finished just in time for Christmas holidays." Granger replied, her voice going down in volume and I had to lean in to hear.

"Hopefully we'll be able to find out about the heir," Weasley said with a sigh. "I'm tired of hearing about Muggle borns getting attacked."

I stood up and walked around the shelf, feeling slight satisfaction when I saw their stunned faces.

"So you three are trying to find the heir?" I asked in what sounded like a bored voice. "What kind of potion is it?"

They all stared at me, none of them knowing how to react. Granger finally whispered. "How much did you hear?"

"Weasley was asking why you weren't in the bathroom." I said.

"You were spying on us?" Weasley asked, turning red.

"I was doing homework on the other side of that shelf and you don't know how to whisper." I snapped at him. "Maybe don't have your private conversations in a public library where even worse people can overhear. Now what potion are you making to help Muggle borns?"

There was another moment of silence until Granger answered. "Polyjuice Potion."

I nodded, "So that's why you were sneaking into Professor Snape's private stores. Yeah, I saw that too. Who're you all changing into?"

"Crabbe, Goyle, and Millicent Bullstrode." Potter finally said.

"Stop telling her things!" Weasley said angrily.

Potter pointed at me. "She already knows we're making Polyjuice Potion!"

"Millicent is going home for Christmas." I pointed out. "If it's almost ready, she's not going to be here."

"I already got some of her hair." Granger piped up. "I was going to say that I had decided to stay here over Christmas."

"That's stupid." I said bluntly. "Millicent loves her family. She never would randomly decide to stay behind." A sudden thought went through my head and I reached up and plucked a trio of my own hair. "Here. I'm already staying behind. Let me know when you are planning on actually doing this."

They stared open mouthed at me until Granger tentatively stepped forward and took the strands of hair from me. She stared at the dark and curly hair in her hand before looking to me. "Why are you helping us?"

She didn't know it, but we were more similar than she thought. We were both Muggle born girls who were both good at school. If things were different, who knows if we could have been friends or not.

I just shrugged and said. "I'm tired of seeing Muggle borns show up half dead too."

With stricken looks on all of their faces, I left their hideaway, packed up my things, and left the library to go back down to the Slytherin common room.

When Granger got the message to me when they were doing their potion, I went to the library and stayed there for a good two hours. There was absolutely no one there and I got to get the rest of my homework done in that time.

When I returned to the common room that night, Draco frowned at me. "Are you actually feeling better now, Heather?" He asked.

What had Granger done? I blinked at Draco. "Yeah, I'm feeling better now. Just had a bad stomach ache from all that dinner."

Draco didn't say anything and shrugged. "Oh," He said as I started for the empty dorm room. "This package came for you."

I took the present from Draco and opened it in the empty dorm room, seeing as there was no label on the outside of the wrapping. But there was a note attached to the green and white sweater that was a size or two too big.

 _Merry Christmas, Schmidt. I didn't get to give you a birthday present, so this is for birthday and Christmas. Your friend, Longbottom_

He had crossed out his first name before writing his last name. I didn't bother fighting the smile on my face and I tried the Slytherin colored sweater on. I'd have to get Longbottom something now when he got back from Christmas holidays. I stayed up only a little while longer before getting into pajamas and falling asleep, hoping that those Gryffindors had found whatever they were looking for.


	8. 8: Reveal

When the rest of the students came back from Christmas holiday, I figured that the three from Gryffindor had gotten the information they had needed from Draco. I never asked him about it, seeing as that would be weird and instantly suspicious. But the three from Gryffindor didn't try to talk to me for the first few days after everyone came back from break, so I assumed their plan to find the heir of Slytherin was going well.

I hoped they found the heir soon. The thought of being the next Muggle born that was attacked made me shudder.

Meanwhile, Longbottom and I decided to help each other with classes other than Charms. He was struggling a lot with Potions, though this fact didn't make a lot of sense to me. Longbottom was probably one of the best in our year at Herbology. Logically speaking, Herbology and Potions went hand in hand. I pointed this out to Longbottom one Friday evening in January and he had turned a blotchy red.

"I can't help it!" Longbottom insisted. "Professor Snape makes me so nervous that whenever I'm in that room I just...I just can't think straight. It doesn't help when he yells at me, or when Malfoy and his friends make fun of me."

I shifted uncomfortably, knowing that until this year, I had been a part of that group, silently letting Longbottom get harassed. If he noticed my sudden discomfort, Longbottom didn't show it, so we just started going over some common and easy to remember potions.

In February, a wide detour had to be made around a girl's bathroom. When I figured out which bathroom it was, I found it wasn't a surprise that it had been flooded. The older Slytherin girls always made a point to tell the new girls to never go in that particular bathroom, because that was where Moaning Myrtle lived. The manic depressive ghost was inclined to flood the toilets in that bathroom every so often. I had never seen the ghost myself, but I had walked past that bathroom enough times to hear Moaning Myrtle bawling her eyes out.

When I woke up on Valentine's Day, I woke to see that Daphne had braided small pink flowers into her bright blond hair. Tracey handed me a pink envelope with my name written on it with a darker pink glittery ink. I smiled at Tracey and got out of bed, opening the envelope for a rain of fireworks to launch up and sprinkle down on top of my head in warm sparkles. I smiled brightly at the sparkles and looked over to Tracey. "How'd you get these done?"

Tracey beamed. "I got some help from Cassius Warrington. He's really nice if you talk to him." She blushed deeply and I suspected there was a Valentine for Cassius in her stack of envelopes.

Our group of friends entered the Great Hall to an odd sight. Professor Lockhart was wearing neon pink robes, his golden hair shining brilliantly and his teeth so white I could see every tooth from the back of the hall. I squinted at the Defense professor and took my seat at the Slytherin table. Draco was openly laughing at him with Vincent and Gregory chuckling right behind him.

"He looks ridiculous!" Draco snickered.

"He's always dressed like that." I pointed out. Pansy threw me a narrowed eyed look. I shrugged at her. "He is. He's just wearing all pink today."

"Why are you sticking up for him?" Pansy asked, sitting beside me and scooping some oatmeal into a bowl.

I had no idea why I was trying to defend Professor Lockhart of all people. The Defense professor meant nothing to me; I made fun of him myself countless times over the course of this year. But I was getting tired of my friends needlessly hating on anyone outside of Slytherin. It was exhausting trying to hate everyone outside of our friend group.

I didn't answer Pansy and avoided the question taking a deep bite from an apple. The conversation around me continued past Professor Lockhart's pink outfit and to some other poor schmuck getting made fun of. I ate my breakfast, feeling a seed of annoyance begin to bury deep in my gut. I caught a glimpse of Longbottom over at the Gryffindor table. He was talking to Patil and Finnigan, and for a moment I wondered what.

Classes kept getting interrupted that day because apparently Professor Lockhart hired some dwarves to dress as Cupids and go around the school and deliver Valentines. Professor McGonagall pursed her lips severely when one of those dwarves interrupted her class to give a sparkly red and pink Valentine to Finnigan. He had blushed very hard and quietly thanked Brown sitting beside him. Draco barely hid any of his laughter.

It was time for lunch when Potter got stopped by a fairly aggressive dwarf, who was trying to sing a song for him. In his attempt to get away, Potter's bag split open and all of his books crashed onto the floor. The dwarf took this opportunity to sing his lungs out.

"His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad!" The dwarf belted out, turning Potter's face beet red. "His hair is as dark as a blackboard! I wish he was mine, he's truly divine; the hero who conquered the Dark Lord!"

I clapped politely at the end of the dwarf's song while several other students clapped and laughed. Potter looked embarrassed to death and was struggling to collect all of his things. Pansy took a break from laughing to narrow her eyes at me clapping my hands and I met her eyes stubbornly.

"What?" I asked. "The dwarf did a good job."

As the crowd began to move again, I heard Draco strike up a new conversation with Blaise and Daphne. I missed the first half of the sentence, but I did hear Draco say, "Did you see the Mudblood's face? She looked like a stunned beaver."

The seed of annoyance I had been feeling for the past several days suddenly swelled up all at once. Without thinking, I stomped forward and shoved Draco's shoulder. The pale boy stumbled forward and spun around looking furious.

I blinked, surprised with my own action. Why did I do that? That was so dumb, and now Draco was glaring at me like he had never seen me before. All of my friends were giving me that look. The crowd that had gathered for Potter's embarrassing singing Valentine were still milling around and a lot of them had stopped again when I pushed Draco. The Hufflepuffs from our year looked very surprised, along with a few Ravenclaws. The Gryffindors present were Grager, Potter, and Weasley, and I felt my stomach churn when I saw Longbottom standing behind them. I turned back to Draco, who had straightened himself back up with Pansy trying to help by dusting him off.

"What's your problem, Heather!" Draco shouted, his pale face flushed a bit red.

Too late to turn back now. "Stop it with the Mudblood stuff. Stop calling people that!"

Pansy stepped forward, looking genuinely angry. "Why do you care about the Mudbloods?" Pansy asked, her eyes now narrowed to slits.

"Because I am one!" I screamed back at her. There was a sudden silence as every Slytherin and Gryffindor and several others in my year stopped and stared at me. "My parents are both Muggles and I as far as I know, I have no magic in my veins. It's just me! And I have no clue why the Sorting Hat put me in Slytherin but it did!"

There was a long pause in which Pansy just stared at me, her brown eyes flaring up with something I couldn't place. I felt tears at the back of my eyes as a wave of muttering went through the crowd of our peers. Draco was standing somewhere behind Pansy and he was the first to react.

"You tricked it!" Draco snarled viciously. "You must have!"

"How do you trick a hat?" I started. I took one step forward but was stopped when Pansy's hand lashed out and her slap echoed around the hallway. I looked up just in time to see Pansy stalking away.

Draco took her spot as I straightened and shouted, "Mudblood!" in my face before he left too.

The rest of the Slytherins in my year, my former friends, followed Pansy and Draco. Tracey and Daphne were decent enough to give me a glance but all the others, Theo and Blaise and Millicent, didn't give me a passing look.

Just like that, I was dead to my friends.

I stood there for a moment, standing there and letting the slap redden on my face. I had been hit before, plenty of times. But that slap from Pansy hurt a lot. Finally, I turned around on my heel and stalked away, shouldering my way between Michael Corner and Terry Boot.

"Schmidt!"

I heard Longbottom's familiar voice sounding behind me and I wanted to keep going, but my feet froze. Longbottom caught up to me and he stood by my shoulder in silence for a long moment, as if he hadn't thought through what he was going to say.

"What is it, Longbottom?" I asked, roughly rubbing my eyes with my sleeve to try and stop the burn of unshed tears there.

When I looked up, Longbottom was standing there, his face pink and his big brown eyes nervously watching me.

"Um," Longbottom started quietly. "You want to eat lunch by the lake? You won't have to sit with them at your table." When I didn't answer right away, he started backtracking. "Or, anywhere, you know. You don't have to say yes. I mean, you're my friend and I don't like it when my friends are sad."

"We're friends?" I asked, and I immediately felt bad that I had to ask.

Longbottom didn't notice and he shook his head. "I think we are. Tutoring sessions are my favorite parts of the week." He paused and shot a glance to the crowd of people behind us who were slowly dispersing again. "I know how to get food from the kitchens. C'mon, let's go."

Without saying anything, I followed Longbottom away from the hall. I'd still have to face my dorm mates after lunch when we had History of Magic class. But Longbottom wasn't thinking about that, and right now I didn't want to think about it either.

Longbottom led the way silently down several stairs and towards the basement. He stopped in front of a large portrait and he reached up and tickled the painting of the pear. I blinked at the high pitched giggle that sounded from the pear and the portrait swung open, nearly knocking Longbottom over.

"Here Schmidt." Longbottom said, stepping through the portrait hole. I went after him and blinked at the large room. Four long tables that matched the Great Hall filled the hall and I stared at the amount of small creatures rushing around the hall between the tables, dropping off platters of food.

"What is this?" I asked. My words brought the attention of several of the small creatures and they rushed over, bowing and curtseying at me and Longbottom.

Longbottom looked confused for a moment before he nodded at the short creatures. "They're house elves. They cook all the food in Hogwarts."

"Can we bring you something, mister and miss?" One of the house elves asked in a squeaky voice.

Longbottom smiled at the house elf. "Just a peanut butter sandwich for me, please. What about you, Schmidt?"

I blinked as one of the house elves rushed off to get Longbottom his sandwich, so I turned to the one closest to me. "A grilled cheese sandwich?" The house elf rushed off and I called after him, "Thank you!"

The other house elves directed us to a couple of seats at the table where the Hufflepuffs usually sat. Longbottom sat across from me and scratched his head. "I'm sorry about your friends back there. I had no idea you were Muggle born."

"No one did." I muttered. "I didn't know it was a bad thing until I was first sorted into Slytherin. I heard Draco talk about it once that first night and knew I shouldn't tell anyone. I made it a whole year and a half without telling anyone."

Longbottom looked concerned. "If you don't mind me asking, why'd you tell them now?"

"Because I heard Draco making fun of Granger." I explained. "Kept calling her a Mudblood. I don't know, I just got so angry at him that I was tired of being quiet about it."

The house elves both showed up with our respective sandwiches and behind them came five more house elves, each of them carrying a large jug with a different drink. They dropped off everything and bowed and curtseyed some more before taking their leave. Longbottom waved goodbye to them and we ate our sandwiches in silence for a long while.

After several minutes, I looked up at Longbottom. "You know, we've only been friends for a few months now, but I think you're a better friend than any of the ones I made in Slytherin."

Longbottom smiled at that, his face turning faintly pink. "Thank you, Schmidt."

We finished our lunch and left the kitchen, saying goodbye to all of the house elves. Longbottom and I walked in comfortable silence back towards the History of Magic hall for our next class. When we heard the sound of students talking, I glanced over to Longbottom. "Thank you again, Longbottom. You're good to talk to."

He beamed brightly as we rounded the corner to where the students were waiting for Professor Binns's door to open. The Slytherins weren't there, but everyone else was. Longbottom and I stayed at the edge of the crowd as people did bad jobs at pretending not to notice.

I tried to ignore the uneasy feeling I got every time I thought about facing the other Slytherins. They'd be here sooner or later, but right now Longbottom was trying to keep me distracted from those kinds of thoughts, and I had to admire him for that.


	9. 9: Petrified

I rushed into the first bathroom I could find and locked myself in a stall, feeling tears burn at my eyes. I covered my face and felt the sobs be ripped from my body, and I didn't care if anyone heard me crying this loudly in the bathroom. Anyone who wanted to say something could just shove-

"Why're you crying?"

I wiped my eyes hard and looked up to see the ghostly head of a girl sticking through the closed stall door. I blinked and sniffed loudly, wiping my eyes again. The ghost girl frowned. "I already saw you crying."

I sniffed again. "My friends found out I'm Muggleborn."

Moaning Myrtle blinked and floated until she was completely in the stall. I moved back on the toilet, trying to give her room. Moaning Myrtle pushed her round glasses up farther on her nose, looking slightly awkward. "What happened?" She asked.

I looked up at the ghost and sniffed loudly. "My friend, Pansy, she and everyone else hates Muggleborns. So when they found out, they started..." I paused. "I can't go into my own common room anymore. The entire House knows and I can't take one step inside the common room without someone calling me Mudblood or accusing me of tricking the hat or telling me that I don't deserve to be at Hogwarts. I came here because...because Draco Malfoy said I should be the Mudblood that dies from Slytherin's monster."

Moaning Myrtle's silvery eyes welled up with tears and she started crying along with me. Her wails were so much louder than the crying I was doing, but her noise was covering up any sound of me. By the time I calmed myself down and wiped my face with a wad of toilet paper, Moaning Myrtle's see through tears had stopped and she was left sniffling with me.

"I hate crying." I said through a thick voice. I wiped roughly at my eyes.

"It's good to cry though," Moaning Myrtle replied. Even though she was done weeping, the silver tears were still sliding down her face. "I cry every day."

I stared up at the ghost and realized how close she was floating in front of me. "Can we leave this stall?" I asked. Moaning Myrtle floated backwards through the stall door, I went after her and almost the moment I left the stall, the door to the bathroom opened and Granger walked in.

"There you are." Granger said. "Professor McGonagall sent me to come fetch you." She paused. "If it makes you feel better, Professor McGonagall gave Malfoy detention for two months for what he said."

"And knowing who Draco's father is, he'll somehow weasel his way out of it with a slap on the wrist." I fired back. "Consequences don't apply to someone like Draco."

Granger blinked and she set her mouth in a thin line. "I'm sorry, Schmidt. I never thought about how hard it would be being a Muggleborn in Slytherin. How bad did it get that first night?"

I thought back to the day I told them I was Muggleborn, how none of the Slytherins sat near me during class for the rest of the day. And word of what had happened had spread like wildfire so by the end of the day, everyone in my year knew, and half of Slytherin House knew. Instantly, some the older Slytherin students had started asking how I tricked the Sorting Hat.

Marcus Flint was the most aggressive of them. "Hey Mudblood, you think Slytherin's monster will rip you to shreds when it finds out you've been hiding among us?"

"I haven't been hiding." I had tried to explain. But I was interrupted by a fourth year named Patricia Stimpson throwing a ball of ink at the back of my head. I had gone into my dorm room after that, curling into the safety of my four poster bed with the curtains tightly closed. I heard my roommates enter the room, talking to each other in hushed voices.

Pansy's voice had cut through all of them. "I don't know about you ladies, but I don't want to be sharing my room with dirty, filthy liars."

She slapped the curtain hiding me from them and I flinched at the sudden movement. I waited for the lights to go out and for everyone to be sleeping before sneaking out to go to the bathrooms and clean up.

Every day for the past week had gone like this. I spent almost all of my time in the library, staying away from the Common Room. I started eating all of my meals in the kitchens; the house elves were always so happy to see me. Whenever I went back to the dungeons for bed, I'd hide in my bed with the curtains drawn until the others went to sleep, and that was when I creep to the bathrooms and get fully ready for bed.

It had officially been a week since everyone found out, and it still didn't hurt any less that Draco said that I should be the Muggleborn who died.

After I finished explaining everything to Granger and Moaning Myrtle, who was still floating around me, Granger looked utterly sympathetic. Moaning Myrtle started crying again. Granger looked awkward for a moment before saying, "If you want, we can study in the library together. So you don't have to be alone all the time. I know you and Neville are friends, but you can always have more than one friend in Gryffindor."

I blinked at her, not expecting this offer at all. Granger smiled kindly at me, and I found myself smiling back rather easily. I wiped my eyes again and I heard Moaning Myrtle let out a small wail and floated away, taking her tears with her. Granger must have sensed how awkward I was feeling because she continued, "I'm going to be in the library tonight for a while. I think I may have an idea on what Slytherin's monster is. If you want, you could come by and help; two heads are better than one, after all."

When Granger and I left Moaning Myrtle's bathroom (after saying goodbye to her), we walked together back to Professor McGonagall's classroom. Professor McGonagall didn't say anything as we entered the classroom, and I refused to look at the four tables that kept all the Slytherins. I sat down beside the Ravenclaw boy I had been sitting next to before, and scribbled some new notes on Transfiguration in my notebook.

* * *

I went down to the kitchen for dinner, not feeling up to sitting at the Slytherin table that night. I tickled the pear and the portrait swung open with its high pitched giggle. Seven house elves met me as the portrait closed behind me.

"What do you recommend from dinner tonight?" I asked the crowd of house elves.

The one closest to me grinned. "I worked very hard on some roast beef, madam! I'll go get you some!" He dashed off.

I asked for mashed potatoes and pumpkin juice from two more house elves. They scattered as I sat down subconsciously at the end of the Slytherin table and I wasn't waiting for long before a trio of house elves returned with my food requests. I had just begun to dig into my lonely dinner when I heard the pear's giggle and the portrait door swung open.

The crowd of house elves rushed to go greet the people walking into the kitchen. I immediately recognized the Weasley twins and turned to go back to my food.

"Schmidt?"

I turned around in my seat to see the Weasley twins standing close by, glaring at me. The one I knew to be Fred took the first step forward. "What're you doing here?"

"I didn't want to sit with my house." I said dryly, not seeing the point in lying to them.

Fred snorted. "Why's that? Things get a bit too hostile down in the dungeons?"

"Yes." I said just as dryly. "They did just find out about me being Muggle born and all."

The twins looked at each other with matching frowns. "That wasn't made up?" The other one-George-asked.

"Why the hell would I make something like that up?"

George shrugged and moved forward until he sat down on the other side of the table, directly across from me. "When Ron told us, we weren't sure he was being truthful."

"Wasn't until Hermione backed him up, we even thought about taking him seriously." Fred finished, taking the seat right next to his twin. They stared at me for an uncomfortable amount of time.

I narrowed my eyes at them. "Is there a reason you're staring at me like I just grew another head?"

Fred rested his chin on his hand and continued staring at me. "Never thought I'd see a genuine Muggle born Slytherin. You must be the first one in a century. I honestly couldn't tell-you're prickly enough."

I felt my face burn red and I glared hard at both of them. "I came down here for a decent meal where no one was acting like I stabbed everyone in the back. Now shut up and let me eat my dinner."

A house elf approached cautiously, a platter of desserts in her arms. She narrowed her large eyes as she looked between me and the twins. George smiled down at the house elf and offered to take the dessert from the house elf. I watched through narrowed eyes as the house elf left, looking over her shoulder in suspicion that we'd start snapping at each other again.

But the Weasley twins seemed determined to not do that. Fred leaned forward and cupped his chin in his hands. "So, Schmidt." He started as his twin began piling slices of cake onto a plate. "Why do you think the Hat did it? Why'd it put you in Slytherin?"

I blinked at him. "I don't know. Why'd it sort you in Gryffindor?"

"Because my whole family's been in Gryffindor." Fred answered. "What's your excuse?"

I chose to ignore his question and ate some of my dinner, allowing the Weasley twins to stuff their faces with cake and talk to themselves until I was ready to talk to them again. The twins took my cold shoulder in stride and began talking about Quidditch.

I was halfway through my dinner when the twins decided to rope me back into a conversation. "What d'you think, Schmidt? Do you think the Wasps have a chance at being in next year's World Cup?" Fred asked.

"Unless it's about the House teams, I don't know anything about Quidditch." I replied evenly.

George frowned. "In that case, do you think Hufflepuff has a chance of beating Gryffindor this week?"

I frowned and pretended to think about it. "Hufflepuff haven't been that good at Quidditch in the games I've seen them in. Gryffindor have won nearly every game they've come across. So statistically speaking, Gryffindor has the advantage."

Fred grinned cheekily. "How do you think Gryffindor will fare against Slytherin?"

"You already beat Slytherin."

"Let's be real, Schmidt." Fred said with a dismissive hand wave. "Slytherin will flatten Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff when they play both teams. Gryffindor will play against Slytherin in the finals, I guarantee it. So which do you think will win?" He and George both leaned forward with identical smiles on their faces.

I looked between them and snorted in amusement. "Given how good of a Seeker Potter is and how most of the guys on the Slytherin team are prone to angry outbursts when things don't go their way, I'm putting my money on Gryffindor."

The twins high fived and let out whoops. I smirked at the pair of them and continued eating. For the most part, the twins left me in peace, only interrupting every so often to ask my opinion on this or that. By the time I finished my meal, the twins had saved a single slice of cake, which they promptly put on a plate and handed to me.

"You're cool, Schmidt." Fred declared. "You're the only Slytherin I know who hates Slytherin."

"I never said I hated Slytherin." I pointed out. "I just have my deep seated issues with the public opinion of Slytherin."

"You sound like a politician." George remarked.

"I have been thinking of a job at the Ministry."

"Ew," The twins both said at the exact same time.

"Never mind," Fred said. "You're no longer cool."

I laughed shortly without thinking and the twins suddenly looked very happy with themselves. "We made her laugh!" George cheered to high heavens. I snorted again and laughed a little more freely this time.

When the cake was gone, the Weasley twins and I left the kitchen together. We waved goodbye to the house elves and headed up the stairs to the ground floor to go our separate ways. I started heading towards the stairs that would lead me down to the dungeons. But the Weasley twins stopped me.

"Oh," Fred shouted down the hall at me. "By the way, you're our favorite Slytherin now!"

"See you later, Schmidty!" George shouted his goodbye. I felt a stiff smile cross my face and I lifted my hand slightly to gesture goodbye. Fred and George Weasley responded by waving their arms goodbye. I felt rather light hearted leaving the Weasley twins after that, and as I made my way down to the cold dungeon Common Room, I thought back on what Granger had said about having more than one friend in Gryffindor.

* * *

The Gryffindor and Hufflepuff Quidditch game was this Saturday afternoon, and it would be the first Quidditch game I didn't attend since coming to Hogwarts. Pansy made it clear to me that I wouldn't be allowed to sit with the Slytherins during the game, and I wasn't confident enough to sit with Longbottom or Granger in the Gryffindor section. So as the school got excited and ready for the game, I grabbed my school books and went into a corner of the library.

The library was almost entirely empty, making the silence seem almost unbearably loud. I passed a Ravenclaw prefect with braided blond hair and Madam Pince walking farther back into the library. I sat down at a table and opened up my Transfiguration textbook, ready to write my essay for homework.

If there was any plus side to my entire House turning their backs on me, it was that I had plenty of alone time to keep on top of my homework.

I wasn't alone for long before I heard the sudden sound of footsteps rushing towards me. I looked up just in time to see Granger running towards me, looking flushed and terrified. She skidded to a halt in front of my table.

"It's a basilisk!" She hissed at me in a terrified breath. "The monster in the Chamber of Secrets; that's what it is!"

I blinked and gaped at her. "Oh okay. What do we do? Who do we tell?"

"We have to tell Dumbledore." Granger said in a rush, hurrying around the table and grabbing my hand, yanking me to my feet. "He has to know!"

"Wait, I didn't help you figure this out." I started.

"It's trying to kill Muggleborns, Schmidt." Granger insisted. "If I go tell Dumbledore and it finds you alone, you could get killed."

I stared at her for a moment before turning to start grabbing my stuff. "Let's go then."

Granger and I rushed towards the exit, nearly knocking into the Ravenclaw prefect on our way out. Granger hurriedly asked her for a mirror and the prefect stared weirdly at Granger.

"We know what the monster of Slytherin is." I explained in an angry whisper, not wanting to bring Madam Pince down on us. "We're on our way to go tell Dumbledore."

A flash of fear went over the prefect's face. "Are you both Muggleborn?" She asked. Granger and I both nodded and the prefect let out a shuddering sigh. "I'll help you two get there." She dug into her bag and pulled out a hand mirror. She stared at it for a moment before looking at me and Granger. "I've never been to Dumbledore's office."

"I know the way." Granger said confidently. She took the mirror and led the way to the library doors. "I'm Hermione Granger, by the way."

The prefect tried to smile but it came across as very forced and scared. "Penelope Clearwater. Also a Muggleborn."

What were the odds of three Muggleborn girls in the library on this day? Granger and Penelope Clearwater both looked very nervous as we left the library, and I imagined that I looked the exact same way. Granger opened the library doors and used the mirror to check the corners before we left the safe haven. As she stepped out of the doors, she reached back and grabbed onto my hand, and I felt a piece of folded paper hidden in her fist. Following Granger's lead, I reached back and grabbed onto Clearwater's hand, bringing the prefect along.

Our progress was slow as we clung to the walls of the corridors. There was no one around the the empty halls echoed with our footsteps. Everyone must already be heading down to the Quidditch pitch. I swallowed hard as we paused at another corner and Granger stuck the mirror out to the side to see if the basilisk was lurking there.

I seemed to hear the basilisk before anything else registered. The sound of a heavy body dragging itself around the stone floors echoed around before Granger stuck the mirror out around the corner.

Then I felt Granger's hand turn to stone in my hand and I barely had time to register the utter terror that clawed its way into my throat as my eyes instinctively went to the mirror and I saw a flash of yellow eyes.

I gasped loudly as I felt my muscles stiffen and my vision went black and suddenly it was like I was sleeping.


	10. 10: Friendship

It was like I was listening to people from underwater. My arms felt like weights so when I tried to lift them to rub at my eyes, I couldn't really move. I closed my eyes slowly, then opened them, everything coming fuzzy and unfocused. The feeling of a hand on my forehead made me turn my head towards the touch and I heard someone say something that sounded very vaguely like my name.

"...Can take a while for the senses to come back…"

It could've been minutes or hours of me laying in the bed blinking around stupidly and trying to lift my own head. When everything finally did come into focus, I found Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey helping Justin Finch-Fletchley into a sitting position on the bed. I turned my head slightly to see Penelope Clearwater already sitting on the edge of her bed, sipping a steaming mug of something.

Clearwater saw me looking at her and she stiffly put the mug down. "Hold on, Schmidt." Clearwater's movements as she got up were extremely stiff, like her joints were still frozen. But she sat on the edge of my bed anyway and grabbed onto my arms, scrunching her face with the effort of pulling my dead weight into a seating position. I let out a sharp gasp at suddenly being up.

"You're okay, Schmidt." She insisted in a quiet voice. "We all are. Professor Sprout gave us all the Mandrake potion an hour ago."

I opened my mouth to speak but nothing came out. Clearwater blinked. "It'll be several minutes before your voice will come back. Look; Colin Creevey is already walking. He was the first one to get potion."

Sure enough, a mousy blond haired Gryffindor first year was walking the length of the hospital wing, barely bending his knees and moving as robotic as possible. Finch-Fletchley was just now standing up. I looked around some more before looking back to Clearwater. Where was Granger?

Once Finch-Fletchley was was like a robot the same as Creevey, Madam Pomfrey helped Clearwater get up so she could do the same. Professor Sprout stayed with me, patting my back roughly and spooning extra Mandrake potion into my mouth. I could barely swallow the potion and the Herbology professor had to massage my throat briefly so that the potion would go down.

"You'll be alright, Schmidt." Professor Sprout assured me. "Just give it a few more minutes and everything'll be fine."

Everything didn't feel fine. The windows across from my bed told me that it was nighttime, and late by the looks of it. And the professor looked worried, even if she was happy the potion was working and we were waking up. How long had we even been asleep? Did they know about the basilisk yet? All these questions bounced around my head violently and it was making my chest hurt not being able to ask anything.

There was a sudden moan from down the row of beds and I turned my head slowly to see Granger, awake and genuinely struggling to sit up. Professor Sprout followed my gaze and helped me get to the edge of my bed. When the professor got me into a standing position, she left me to go help Granger wake up. I started dragging my feet after her, making my way slowly to where the professor was going.

"Bas-" Granger was battling to say. "It-bas-"

"Don't you worry dear," Professor Sprout cut her off. "We know what's down there. There's uh, a few students who are down there right now. Professor Dumbledore is working on getting them back."

I stopped shuffling and nearly fell over. Students were facing off against a basilisk? Who would be mad enough to even try? Granger's brown eyes went very wide with terror and in that moment I knew exactly who went down there-Potter and her Weasley.

It took another hour for the five of us to walk the length of the hospital wing before we heard several sets of footsteps passing by. Professor Sprout rushed outside to see what was happening and when she came back, she smiled at us.

"Keep practicing, children!" She called to us. "Great news! The Chamber's monster has been killed and Professor Dumbledore is throwing a special feast!"

I exchanged a glance with Granger at this. We had been shuffling together for the entire time she had been up on her feet. We had found out together that we had been petrified for two whole months. The thought was terrifying, that for two months the world kept turning but we had essentially been sleeping the whole time.

Madam Pomfrey had us march the length of the hospital wing a few more times for safety before she and Professor Sprout led the way towards the Great Hall. I fell into step beside Granger. "You think Potter and Weasley had anything to do with fixing this mess?"

Granger gave me a thin smile. "If I know them, they had everything to do with fixing it."

We didn't have to enter the Great Hall to hear the excited murmuring of the whole school packed into the hall. Professor Sprout and Madam Pomfrey opened the doors to the Great Hall, leading the group of Muggleborns into the hall as it quickly hushed.

Justin Finch-Fletchley entered first and the Hufflepuff table started rejoicing at the sight of their own. I blinked at the realization that one Muggleborn had been taken from each house, with Gryffindor losing two. Granger rushed towards the Gryffindors, yelling, "You solved it!"

Justin was embraced by nearly every Hufflepuff from our year, and Colin Creevey was patted on the back several times by the Gryffindors. Penelope Clearwater hugged her Ravenclaw friends before hurrying to the Gryffindor table and kissing Percy Weasley, causing him to blush profusely.

I paused for a moment in the doorway, watching the others reunite with the housemates who all seemed so happy to see that they were alive and okay. I looked over to the cold Slytherin table, which had been mostly quiet as the Muggleborns returned to their houses. Already, I was getting some glares from the older students. I caught a glimpse of my former friends from the second year, and they were all pointedly not looking at me. Pansy was instead focusing on stabbing her salad.

But then Granger stood in front of me. "Come over here, Schmidt. Come sit with us."

"I don't think that's allowed." I said, trying to side step around her. But Granger blocked me again and grabbed my hand.

"Nope, you're sitting with us." Granger said. "Your house doesn't deserve you." She pulled me along to the Gryffindor table straight to where Potter and Weasley were already sitting in dusty and muck covered robes. Granger looked up to the teacher's table and I followed her gaze. Professor Dumbledore smiled brightly at me and Granger and nodded his head deeply.

Granger sat down next to Weasley and I tentatively took the seat next to her. I was only sitting awkwardly for a moment before Longbottom hurried over and planted himself in the seat across from me. I smiled without thinking.

"Longbottom!" I exclaimed.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Longbottom cheered, sounding genuinely excited to see me. "I was so scared when I heard that you were attacked. Are you okay?"

I looked down and pretended to inspect myself. "I think I am now." I paused and leaned forward. "Tell me, how angry do the Slytherins look right now?"

Longbottom glanced over and made a face. "Pansy Parkinson is very red and she looks like she wants to stab you with that fork of hers."

There was a sudden loud exclaiming and I found myself getting jostled around as the Weasley twins forced themselves to sit on either side of me. "Our favorite Slytherin is alive!" George Weasley screamed painfully close to my ear.

"The best Slytherin is alive!" Fred Weasley countered, looking directly at the Slytherin table and yelling loud enough to be heard by half of my house. I felt my face turn red and I locked eyes with Longbottom, who was trying and failing at hiding his laughter.

"This is funny to you?" I asked him dryly. Longbottom shrugged as the Weasley twins continued screaming about how I wasn't dead and therefore better than the rest of Slytherin house.

The food that the house elves had prepared was delicious, and I found myself eating an awful lot as if I hadn't in a long time. When I remembered that I hadn't eaten in a long time, I chuckled softly to myself and glanced over to Granger and the other Muggleborns; we were all eating like crazy.

This feast was by far my favorite out of my entire time at Hogwarts. Hagrid the groundskeeper came in about a half hour into the feast, and he made a point of cuffing Potter and Weasley so hard on back the pair of them nearly fell over. Professor Dumbledore did give the pair four hundred points, winning Gryffindor the House Cup. I remained sitting as the Gryffindors around me leapt into the air and screamed with delight. And then Professor McGonagall announced that exams were cancelled as a school treat, and then Professor Dumbledore told the school that Professor Lockhart wouldn't be our teacher next year. A few teachers joined in the applause on that announcement.

Longbottom was fill me in on all of the Herbology and Charms I had missed. His dark eyes started glowing when he talked about how Professor Sprout let him help the Mandrakes grow. "Out of everyone in the entire school," Longbottom explained. "She picked a handful from all years, and she chose me!"

"That's because you're awesome at Herbology." I replied. "You may be the best in the year." Neville's eyes widened and he beamed at me.

The rest of the school year went by in a golden haze. Even though I had to sleep in the Slytherin dorms, I spent all day with Longbottom beside the lake, reading up on the classes I had missed. I wasn't going to eventually beat Granger at school if I didn't work at it. Neville explained the entire process of raising the Mandrakes, but when it came to brewing the Mandrake potion that had woken me up, he turned red and didn't have a lot to say about it.

"I wasn't really allowed to help out with the potion making part." Longbottom admitted. "We had to go down to the dungeons and Professor Snape was there and it just...just made me very nervous." He wrung his hands together and I decided to change the subject.

"Do you have an owl at home?" I asked.

Longbottom blinked and nodded. "My Gran has a personal one, and we have another one that I can use. Why?"

"So we can write each other this summer." I explained. "I can't go another summer with only talking to my Mum."

Longbottom smiled at that and he nodded enthusiastically. "I can tell you all about the bowtruckles I want to grow this summer. Gran thinks it'll be a waste of time and space in the garden, but my Great Uncle Algie bought the seeds for my this Christmas and he promised he'd come by and help me grow them."

I had a vague knowledge about what bowtruckles were, but Longbottom seemed very excited about them, so I smiled and made him promise he'd write me updates on their growth progress. We spent the rest of the afternoon making going over the old classes, practicing Charms, and making sure that Trevor the toad didn't hop away.

It was easy to avoid the Slytherins, for the most part. My friends were always clustered around each other all the time, and whenever they saw me, they all turned their backs on me. I guess it was an upgrade from wanting me dead. I just wish I had known what they had been up to the entire time I had been petrified.

Then it was time for the train journey back to Kings Cross station. I got a compartment with Longbottom and it wasn't long before the Patil twins, Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas ended up joining our compartment. At first they were all on edge with me being there, but then Padma Patil, the one from Ravenclaw, asked me about Charms and the moment we got stuck on that topic, the Gryffindors all relaxed a lot. I played Exploding Snap with them all, Finnigan let off the last of his Filibuster fireworks and Thomas spoke to me about being Muggleborn.

Not for the first time, I felt a stab of jealousy at his situation. He and Granger were both Muggleborns in a house that didn't treat that as a criminal offence. How different would these last two years of my life be if I had been sorted in any house other than Slytherin?

The Hogwarts Express pulled onto the platform and I said goodbye to the Gryffindors and Patil twins, secretly hoping that they could become friends once school started next year. Longbottom and I got off the train together and we collected our trunks together.

He smiled at me brightly. "See you in September?"

I grinned back. "See you in September. Please write to me, okay?"

"I promise!" Longbottom agreed. He waved goodbye and went through the crowd, looking for his Gran. I grabbed my trunk and left the platform, needing to get to the Muggle ticket counter before there was a rush.

I purchased a ticket with my Muggle money for the next train going to Newmarket. I got a direct line, a bit of a rarity, and I started heading for the platform before any of the wizards and witches appearing from platform nine and three quarters could see me getting onto the train heading north towards Newmarket, towards home.


	11. 11: Newmarket

The train pulled into Newmarket station as the setting sun stained the sky dark pink. I lugged my trunk off the train and walked straight towards the parked cabs waiting by the road. When I found one that would be able to drive me to the house, the driver helped my put the trunk in the cab and we rode down the hill and out of the downtown area.

Mum and I technically lived right outside of Newmarket. There was a massive field of crops at the end of the road we lived on, and later on in the summer it would reek of manure. I paid the cap driver and approached the dark house as he pulled away. I bit back a sigh, seeing no lights on outside or inside, and I unlocked and opened the door.

The house smelled stale, and I knew Mum hadn't cleaned in a while. I closed the door behind me and continued through the house, dragging my trunk behind me. I could barely see the empty wine bottles randomly dispersed around the house and I ignored them for now: I'd clean them up later. I went down the hall and into my small bedroom, seeing that the room hadn't been touched since I had left last September.

It took a moment of me searching the house, but Mum wasn't here. I wondered if she had taken a late shift at Sainsbury's, knowing that if she had the store would be closing in an hour or so. If Mum wasn't at work, then she could end up coming home tomorrow morning or afternoon. I got dressed into a pair of soft shorts and a tee shirt, and got to work cleaning the kitchen first.

The trash bin was overflowing and there was a pile of dishes in the sink that looked too daunting at the moment, so I left them be. After a moment of looking around the pantry and fridge, I microwaved a cup of noodles and got a glass of water from the sink. I ate my dinner at the kitchen table in the silence of the house, and I already missed Hogwarts like an ache in my chest.

I finished cleaning the kitchen after eating and before I went to bed, I turned on the outside light so that if Mum did come home, she'd have at least one light on. I showered in my shower and tucked myself into bed, planning to completely unpack tomorrow after cleaning this room and the living room.

When I woke up the next morning, I did a quick search around and found that Mum was still gone. She must've gone out with friends from work, or had a boyfriend, or just slept on someone's couch. I ate a quick breakfast and began cleaning the living room, throwing out the empty wine bottles and empty takeout boxes. I dusted the surface of everything in the house and swept the floors, feeling better about being back home the more I cleaned and took control of the situation. I was busy unpacking my trunk when I heard the front door open and close.

There was a long pause before I heard Mum say, "Heather?"

I shook myself and got up, going to see Mum for the first time since last year. Mum was standing and looking around the living room, rubbing her temples. She looked up when she heard me enter and she blinked at me. "When did you get home?"

"Last night." I said.

Mum looked at the watch on her wrist and frowned. It was nearly five in the evening. "Hm. Welcome home then. I have to work early in the morning, so you'll be on your own tomorrow."

I nodded at that as she passed me to go into the kitchen. I crept after her, wanting to ask her about dinner tonight, just so I could know if I had to make another cup of noodles for myself. I had already eaten the second to last cup this morning for breakfast. Mum took a bottle from the fridge and narrowed her eyes at me when she saw me staring at her.

"What is it?" She asked sharply.

I blinked and shuffled my feet. "I was just wondering if you planned on making dinner tonight?"

"You think I wouldn't feed my only child? Is that it?"

I shuffled my feet again. "No, it's not that."

"I'm ordering pizza from those Italian blokes down the road." Mum snapped. "You don't get to come home and start acting like an entitled brat."

I retreated out of the kitchen the moment she turned her back on me. I knew that when Mum got into these moods, any amount of prying would cause her to lash out. The best time to talk to Mum was when she was three glasses of wine in and half asleep and a relatively happy drunk. Less than three and she was barely drunk and more than four was when she was either passed out or angry enough to start swinging.

Mum didn't try asking about class at Hogwarts and I couldn't help but wonder if she knew about how I had been petrified by a basilisk. If she did know, did she even care? I stayed in my room and finished unpacking my school trunk, adding my second year textbooks to the shelf in my closet where my first year textbooks were hidden. I briefly wondered if I could sell these books to someone and get some wizard money, but I figured I'd have to travel to Diagon Alley in London to do that. And right now Mum wasn't in the right mindset to give me money to travel down there.

The pizza had arrived by the time I finished cleaning my room. Mum and I ate our dinner in awkward silence as we watched some reality show my Mum was interested in. It seemed very American, but the only basis I had for this was their accents weren't from the U.K. Whatever it was, it kept Mum entertained as she sipped wine and ate pizza.

I regarded Mum from the corner of my eye, really seeing her for the first time since last September. Deborah Schmidt was still considered very pretty, with wide brown eyes and curly dark hair that she had cut short right above her shoulders. She was still young, having just turned thirty. I had heard her story countless times growing up; she had had me when she was only sixteen, and my dad had stuck around for two years before leaving the pair of us. I got the bitter feeling that Mum blamed me for her life not turning out the way she wanted it.

Mum fell asleep on the couch after three glasses of wine and I silently picked up the pizza box and put the leftovers in the fridge. I went into my room to sleep, giving Mum one more glance before disappearing. She'd be gone to work before I woke up.

The first two weeks back home went by painfully slow. Mum worked most days so I was alone for most of the time. I started working on my homework so that I didn't have to do it at the last minute. I was almost done with my Potions essay when an owl tapped its beak on my front window.

I opened the window and the owl flew into my living room. I smiled at the owl as it stuck out its foot, offering me the envelope tied to it. I untied the letter and fixed a bowl of water for the owl. I tore open the envelope and sat down to read the letter.

 _Dear Schmidt, How's your summer going so far? Mine is going okay, I miss hanging out with you and talking about Herbology. Every time I try to talk to Gran about it, she just acts so disinterested. I've planted the bowtruckle seeds already, and there's already some sprigs growing out of the ground! It won't have any bowtruckles until next summer, but they should grow a lot before school starts again. I can't wait to see them grow already! Write back soon. From, Neville Longbottom_

I smiled at the letter and wished I was with Longbottom to help him plant the bowtruckle plant. It sounded more fun than sitting here working on a Potions paper that wouldn't be due for another few months. The owl was still drinking at the water bowl and I hoped it stuck around long enough for me to write a reply.

 _Dear Longbottom, It's good to hear from you so soon. My summer has been boring so far; I wish I could help with the bowtruckle plant. It sounds more fun than sitting around home all day. I don't think we'll be learning about bowtruckles for a long time in Herbology. I've signed up for our electives for next year. I'm going to be taking Care for Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes. I mainly took Ancient Runes to give me a class away from the others in my house, as none of them had signed up for it. And I really like magical creatures, so Care seemed like a good fit. Can't wait to hear from you again. From, Heather Schmidt_

I wondered when Longbottom and I would be friendly enough to be on a first name basis, and decided that I'd use his first name in the next letter I wrote to him. I sealed the envelope and tied it to the barn owl's leg, opening a window for it to fly out of. The owl hooted thankfully and took off, leaving me behind to watch it. I kept my eyes on the flying owl until it was a speck of black in the blue sky, and I sighed heavily wishing that I could just as easily fly away from here.

* * *

Mum and I spent majority of the summer moving around each other as if we weren't sure how to communicate with each other. It had been this way for a couple of years, ever since Professor McGonagall had visited our little house and explained that the weird things I had been able to do. It was like Mum had no idea how to process her only child being a witch, and she chose to deal with it by ignoring me and hoping it went away.

Which it did every September through June.

I got my back to school list of textbooks in August, and Mum responded by giving me enough money to get to Diagon Alley in London and some money to buy my textbooks. I'd have to take the early morning train to Kings Cross and then take a train back to Newmarket in the evening. She had the day off of work that day, and I tried not to think about whether or not she planned it that way.

The train ride to London was boring, and I looked forward to the journey back that would give me some new textbooks to read. I had brought a few of my old textbooks with me, to see if I could sell them back to Flourish and Blotts. It'd be nice to have some extra money on me when I went back to Hogwarts.

In my letter welcoming me to my third year, Professor McGonagall had included a permission form to go to a wizarding village called Hogsmeade. Neville and I wrote to each other excitedly, looking forward to go to this village on weekends. The only problem I'd have to get past was getting Mum to sign the permission slip. I had learned long ago not to ask questions, and not to ask for any favors. Maybe tonight after getting home from Diagon Alley, I could convince Mum to sign the form after she had a day without me hanging around the house like a ghost.

Diagon Alley was a twenty minute ride through the underground from Kings Cross, and when I entered through the Leaky Cauldron, I couldn't fight the smile that had been creeping onto my face.

The man at the bar bowed his head at me as I passed him and I smiled rather cheerfully at him. When I exited the pub and entered the actual street of Diagon Alley, it was like the weight of the Muggle world evaporated. This world was where I belonged, not the too quiet and stuffy Muggle world waiting for me in that house in Newmarket. If it was possible to just not go back to Mum and that house, I wasn't sure if I would go back.

I walked past a cluster of witches standing outside of the apothecary, talking loudly about prices and arguing about who would get the last few bottles of frog's toes. Flourish and Blotts looked slightly crowded inside, and I figured that there were probably other students already here getting their books. I adjusted my grip on my heavy backpack and entered the bookshop, looking for the first employee to ask about exchanging my old textbooks.

The employee actually took my old textbooks and began exchanging them for my new textbooks. I made a mental note to come back with the rest of my younger year textbooks next time I came here. I put the new books into my bag and the employee strapped a leather cord around my Care for Magical Creatures textbook, a nasty and snapping monster called the _Monster Book of Monsters_. When all of my textbooks were appropriately wrangled and in a bag, I stepped back outside into the sunshine and immediately saw a very familiar face.

"Potter?" I said.

Harry Potter blinked and for a long moment, we stared at each other in awkward remembrance. Last school year, we had been on vaguely friendly terms, as friendly as me keeping his Polyjuice Potion scheme a secret and him not being a jerk about me being Muggleborn could get. He had grown in the few months I hadn't seen him, his hair sticking up on the back of his head.

Potter smiled thinly at me, looking just as awkward as I felt. "Oh. Hi, Schmidt. How is your summer?"

I blinked. "Okay, I guess. Yours?"

He turned a faint shade of pink and cleared his throat slightly. "It's been interesting to say the least. I can't wait to go back to Hogwarts."

"Me too," I replied. For a moment neither of us said anything. "Looking forward to the new classes this year."

Potter smiled thinly again. "We're getting a new professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Well, we'd have to. Lockhart had what? They called it an episode at the end year of the year."

"An episode is the nicest way of putting it." Potter replied. When we didn't speak immediately after that, it wasn't as awkward as before. Potter hesitated before continuing. "Hey, I got a letter from Hermione earlier in the summer, and she's going to be insisting we all become friends."

"Granger doesn't need to do that." I said immediately. "I'm fine the way I am right now." The lie was so easy coming out that I nearly believed it. But Potter seemed to be harder to convince, because he frowned at me but shrugged anyway.

"Okay." Potter said. "I'm just letting you know that she's going to be trying to befriend you. I think last year made Hermione rethink her stance on Slytherins."

"If she's looking for more Muggleborn Slytherins, I'll let her know when I find anymore." I said dryly. "So far I'm the only one."

Potter shrugged again. "I'm sure there are more. Doesn't seem likely that you're the only one to be sorted into Slytherin."

"Thanks, Potter." I said earnestly. I checked my watch very quickly before glancing back at Gringotts. "I have to go exchange some money before heading out. I've got to get back to Newmarket"

"Alright. I guess I'll see you around Hogwarts then."

Potter and I waved goodbye to each other before we turned away and went along our own ways.

* * *

It was nearly dark by the time I got back to the house. The living room light was shining out of the window as my taxi dropped me off, and it didn't strike me as odd until I opened the front door and heard more than one voice coming from the living room. I swallowed and tried rushing past the living room, to get farther into the hallway and into the safety of my bedroom before Mum or any of her friends saw me.

"Girl!" A man's voice called out from the living room and I froze in place.

"This your daughter, Debbie?" A woman's voice asked, and I could tell by her voice more than her look that she was already heavily drunk. Her blond hair was slightly disheveled, and she was sitting in the lap of the man who must've called me girl when I walked in. The woman continued. "She's pretty. Looks like you, Debbie."

Mum appeared, standing in the doorway of the kitchen and watching me with narrowed eyes. "There's pizza in the kitchen for you. Get some and get in your room."

"Oh c'mon, Debbie." The man drawled out.

I ducked my head and rushed into the kitchen, sneaking past Mum and hurrying to grab a plate.

"She doesn't like company that much," Mum was loudly explaining to her friends. "She likes to hide away whenever anyone new comes along."

From my backpack, I heard the Monster Book of Monsters growl against its leather binding and I hurried into my room, wanting to stay miles away from Mum and her friends. When I got my plate of pizza, I hurried into my room, a swell of laughter rising from the living room behind me as I closed and locked the bedroom door behind me.


	12. 12: The Dementor

The morning of September first dawned bright and found me already awake. I had packed my trunk the night before with my new textbooks, uniforms and casual clothes, and all of the various things I'd need throughout the new school year. I got dressed and dragged my trunk to the front door of the house, pausing for a moment.

Mum was sleeping like a rock. She technically had the day off of work today, but I had heard her on the phone last night making plans about spending the day with some guy she met through her job. I stood frozen by the door for a minute or two, not sure if I should wake her up to say goodbye.

There was a honk from outside; the taxi I had reserved for this morning was here. I walked out of the house with my trunk without looking back.

I sat impatiently on the train going south towards Kings Cross. I would definitely make it to the train station on time, as long as nothing bad happened on this train ride. My leg was bouncing the entire time as I shared the train with business men and hungover people trying to make it home. I was the one who looked most eager to get anywhere. When the train finally did pull into Kings Cross, I nearly bowled over one thin and tall man in a patchy brown jacket in my rush to get to platform nine and three quarters.

"Sorry!" I called over my shoulder.

The man looked at me with amusement before smiling. "Not to worry. Go on and get where you're going." He waved me onwards, and I didn't waste any time listening to him and hurrying over to the platform.

The moment the coast was clear, I charged at the barricade and wound up standing on the platform right in front of the scarlet train that would take me to Hogwarts. I smiled widely at the sight of it, feeling that weight being lifted from my shoulders again.

There weren't a lot of people milling about, as it was still an hour left until the train took off. I got my trunk on the train and hurried on board to get dressed into school robes and wait for the train to take off.

It wasn't long for the platform to get crowded, but I stayed in my compartment and just looked out of the window at everyone getting ready. I spotted some people in my year walking around before coming on the train, and I eagerly waited to see Neville again.

When Pansy came into my view instead, I swallowed hard and retreated from the window for a lone moment until I deemed it safe to look outside again. I didn't want to confront Pansy just yet. There'd be plenty of time to do that during the welcome back feast. An uncomfortable knot formed in my stomach when I realized that I'd have to sit with the other Slytherins during the welcome back feast. I had spent most of the end of last year either petrified or eating down in the kitchens.

The compartment door opened and I flinched slightly before realizing that Neville was standing in the doorway. I shot up and exclaimed, "Neville!"

"Heather!" Neville exclaimed right back. He made a move to hug me but stopped himself before he actually tried. Neville had changed over the summer, having grown maybe another foot taller over the last couple of months. But he still had the same bright smile and I could hear Trevor croaking from his pocket.

"How was your summer?" I asked. "How're the bowtruckles?"

Neville beamed. "Oh they're great! The sprouts were pretty long when I left, and they'll be budding when I get back after this year."

"Your uncle will be watching over them?" I asked, knowing how Neville's uncle was the one who gave him the bowtruckle seeds in the first place.

Neville nodded. "Hopefully he does a good job. I left him a note with a schedule on it of when they should receive sun and what time they should be watered."

I shook my head slightly. "That seems like a lot of work for plants."

"The best plants are a lot of work." Neville replied, moving farther into the compartment. I sat down and he took the spot across from me, removing Trevor from his pocket and stroking the toad's head.

The compartment door opened again and it took me two minutes to recognize Ginny Weasley, a small girl with ginger hair and bright amber eyes. She started to greet Neville before catching sight of me, her eyes instantly narrowing the moment she saw my Slytherin robes.

Neville noticed. "Ginny, this is Heather. She's my friend. Heather, this is Ginny Weasley. She's going into her second year this year. What do you need, Ginny?"

Ginny looked back to Neville. "I was wondering if I could sit in here with you. The train is really full."

"Sure thing, Ginny." Neville replied, gesturing to the empty seats in our compartment. Ginny took the one beside Neville, and she offered me a small smile.

"Nice to meet you, Heather." Ginny said.

I smiled back at her. "Nice to meet you too, Ginny. You excited for the new year?"

Ginny nodded enthusiastically. "Anything will be better than last year."

The train had just begun moving, taking us back north towards Hogwarts. People were still walking around and trying to find seats. I caught sight of Daphne Greengrass passing by with a first year girl. But my fellow Slytherin glared hard at me and ushered the first year away, turning her nose up at me. I sighed; it seemed like the hostility wasn't going away anytime soon.

At some point, a second year girl with dirty blond hair and radish looking earrings walked past and looked in. Ginny pretended not to notice her until the girl walked away. I glanced back to Ginny and asked, "Who was she?"

"That's Luna Lovegood." Ginny said, her amber eyes still on the glass door. "She's a Ravenclaw in my year. She's weird."

Neville and I exchanged looks before turning back to Ginny. "How's she weird?" Neville asked.

Ginny leaned forward, finally looking away from the door. "Her father runs the Quibbler, and you should hear the way she talks about some magical creatures-things I've never even heard of! One time, Toby Lennox, another Ravenclaw, tried telling her that those creatures didn't exist." She broke off and giggled slightly. "That was a fun day in Charms class."

I had no idea what the Quibbler was, and I hadn't heard this girl talk about nonsensical magical creatures, but I immediately felt a kind of pity and understanding for this Luna Lovegood. I got up from my seat and peeked out of the compartment door, spying Luna Lovegood at the end of the train car. Ginny and Neville were both watching me closely and I sighed. "Ginny, does she have friends?"

Ginny frowned and looked to think about it for a long moment before shrugging. "I don't think so. I never see her sitting with anyone in class."

With that, I walked out of the compartment and hurried over to where Luna was standing, peering into other compartments probably looking for a place to sit. "Hi!" I said, maybe a bit too cheerfully. "Do you want to come sit with us?"

Luna Lovegood blinked her wide eyes and me and frowned. "Are you making fun of me?" She asked in a matter of fact, singsong like voice.

I flinched, taken aback by her bluntness. "Of course not. It's just that, I'd want someone to be kind to me if I was alone on the train."

Luna's smile crept slowly across her face and she straightened slightly. "Thank you."

I led Luna back to the compartment and let her inside. "Luna's going to sit with us." I said bluntly.

Neville quickly caught Trevor as the toad tried to escape. "Hi there, Luna. Nice to meet you. I'm Neville Longbottom."

"Hello, Neville." Luna said politely. "Hello, Ginny."

Ginny smiled shyly at Luna, looking embarrassed about her earlier comments even though there was no way Luna could have heard. I took my earlier seat and Luna sat down beside me. After a moment of no one saying anything, I started a game of Exploding Snap and the awkwardness slowly dissolved as Ginny and Luna started betting. When the trolley witch came by, Neville and Luna both bought large piles of candy and those were added to the betting piles. Outside the window, the rain was pouring and the glass was fogging up, showing how cold it was outside compared to the warmth inside the train.

"I really want the Harpies to win," Ginny was saying. Luna was leaning forward and hanging on every word as the Weasley girl explained her views on the Quidditch season. "But Joan Oliver twisted her shoulder on the last match of the season so hopefully she'll be able to come back in time."

Neville and I had our Potions textbooks opened in front of us, and we were going over the potions our class would be learning this year. "You see," I turned the book to face him and pointed to the picture of ground up nightshade. "This is going to activate the other ingredients and thicken the potion."

"Thickness is good in this situation?" Neville asked, glancing at me from over the book.

"Only for a while." I explained. "Once it's thick, it says to leave it chilled for forty eight hours. So I assume we'll start it one day and come back to our potions the next class time."

Neville nodded and scribbled a note down in his open notebook. "This year will be so much easier with you as my Potions partner."

I blinked and looked up, slightly surprised. Neville looked at me and his face turned bright pink. "Oh! I just assumed that since we're friends and Slytherin has been, well…" He drifted off.

I shook myself and smiled at Neville. "No, you're completely right, Neville. I guess I hadn't thought about who my Potions partner would be now. I don't see why we can't be paired up? Who was your partner last year?"

Neville shrugged. "Sometimes I was paired with Hermione. Other times Seamus and Dean. It really depended."

"Well, you've got me now." I said firmly. "To hell with Pansy." Even though the words made Neville chuckle lighty, it didn't bring any kind of amusement to my face. There was still a part of me that missed my first friend.

The train jered wildly and the brakes squealed as the train skidded to a stop. "What the hell?" I asked, my Potions book flying from my hands and falling hard onto the floor.

"We can't be there yet." Luna pointed out, her voice barely changing in surprise.

Ginny looked around and got up to stare out of the compartment. "I should find my brothers. Just in case something-" She cut herself off, an uneasy look clouding her face. Neville got up too.

"I'll help you look." He volunteered. "We'll be right back." Neville and Ginny left. Luna closed the compartment door after them and stared out through the glass for a long moment. I peered out of the train window, rubbing away at the fog clogging up the view.

"There's something moving out there," I whispered. There was a second jerk of the train and the lights of the entire car flickered and went out, plunging us into darkness. "Luna." I hissed.

Luna was frozen at the compartment door, her breathing coming in little gasps of terror. I looked past her as an icy chill fell over me like a heavy weighted blanket. Past Luna was a massively tall hooded figure, peering into the compartment back at us.

It felt like a weight was nesting in my gut as the cold sunk deep into my bones. The feeling of clawing isolation hung around my neck and I wanted to fall to my knees and weep. I felt like I was trapped back in that house in Newmarket, alone and aching for companionship, for Mum to finally come home and act like a true mother-

Luna was shivering so much I could see it. I saw tears streaming down her face as she stared unblinkingly up at the hooded creature, which continued to hover at our compartment door and stared down at us. Luna was whimpering now.

I shakingly got to my feet and gently grabbed Luna by the elbow, pulling her away from the compartment door and towards the relative safety of the seat by the window. When Luna was sitting, I faced the creature and I straightened under the crushing weight of loneliness.

"Get out." I whispered, not able to raise my voice past that. "Leave us alone."

The creature seemed to stare down at us for a moment before finally floating away, moving onto the next compartment. It took a long time, but gradually the warmth returned to the compartment and the weight that rested on my shoulders was slowly lifted and gone. I slumped into the seat beside Luna, where silent tears were still falling from her eyes.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly.

Luna looked at me and nodded. "I think so. I felt like...like I'd never be cheerful again. It reminded me of my-" She cut herself off as fresh tears came into her eyes. I reached into my bag and pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to her. She wiped her eyes and the lights flickered back on, telling me that the creature was gone.

"What was that?" I asked, getting up and peering down the compartment. Luna didn't answer and kept batting at her eyes and keeping her breathing even. I only moved away from the compartment when I spotted Ginny and Neville running back. I opened the door for them and they rushed into the compartment as the train jerked back to life and started moving again.

"Did you see the dementor?" Ginny asked immediately.

"Is that what that was?" I asked, closing the door as they took their seats again. "What's a dementor?"

Ginny launched into a hurried explanation about the creatures that made you feel like no happiness could exist. I remembered the intense feelings of isolation, feeling like I was back in Newmarket, and a quick stab of guilt struck me for feeling that way about the house I shared with my mother.

It was very tense on the rest of the ride to Hogwarts, and it wasn't until we got off the train and started towards the empty carriages that Neville and Ginny finally spoke about where they went and what they saw.

"We found Ron and his friends." Ginny explained as we waited for a carriage. "We got there just as the lights went out."

"The dementor was right behind us." Neville picked up. "It came in after us and it nearly made me faint. Made Harry faint!"

"Potter fainted?" I asked, surprised by that. Neville nodded and before he could continue on, there was a sudden sharp push from behind and I was knocked into Neville hard as Draco Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle shoved their way past me.

"Move, Mudblood." Draco snarled at me from over his shoulder. I blinked at his back and sighed as Neville helped me regain my balance.

"I may have to take more meals down in the kitchens than expected." I said grimly. Neville snorted in dark amusement and we climbed into the next carriage with Ginny and Luna.


	13. 13: The Hostile House

I wasn't sure what to expect when I came into the Great Hall. I hadn't exactly sat with my House since they found out I was revealed as a Muggle born. I didn't think I should sit with the Gryffindors the entire year, if at all. Dumbledore giving us permission at the end of last year seemed more like a special thing. When we reached the castle, I said goodbye to my friends and practically ran up the steps until I made it to the Great Hall, sweaty and out of breath.

There were barely any others in the Great Hall when I finally made it there. I panted heavily but managed to plop my side down right at the edge of the Slytherin table, making sure to keep my space pretty small. Someone will still have to sit with me, but the table can fill up before that has to happen.

People started filing in and I ignored every single Slytherin who gave me dirty looks or grumbled insults under their breath. I played with the corner of my napkin as I avoided everyone's eye. After a while, I realized that this was taking forever for this room to fill up.

I glanced up and accidentally made eye contact with Pansy Parkinson.

Pansy stalked towards me with venom in her eyes. Her hair had been freshly cut to her chin and it bounced slightly with every step she took. I forced my face to remain blank as Pansy halted right beside the Slytherin table. For a very long moment, Pansy and I just stared at each other in silence.

"Hello, Pansy." I started cautiously. "Have a good summer?"

"Why are you sitting here, Mudblood?" Pansy sneered.

I looked down at my robes with the green patches on the shoulders and lapels, clearly marking me as a Slytherin. I looked back up to Pansy and frowned. "I'm pretty sure I'm still in Slytherin, Pansy."

"You may be a Slytherin, but we don't want you here." Pansy insisted. "So why don't you just get up and leave?"

I flinched slightly but refused to move. More people were flooding into the Great Hall and some from Hufflepuff and Slytherin were pausing to look at the situation that was escalating. I caught sight of Marcus Flint walking past with a lopsided grin, looking like it was Christmas because a Muggle born was getting harassed.

"I'm not moving, Parkinson." I said firmly. "You can go sit down there and ignore me."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to enjoy dinner with your stench clogging up the table." Pansy said in a loud voice, and many nearby Slytherins snickered. I glanced past Pansy and caught sight of Tracey Davis and Daphne Greengrass standing nearby, watching everything with narrowed eyes. Daphne had a blank look on her face, but Tracey had a more troubled look on her face. We met eyes for a moment before Tracey looked away and walked down the table, going to take a seat. Daphne looked after her for a moment before going after her, not looking back.

I narrowed my eyes at Pansy. "You're going to run out of space and have to sit here if you don't go have a seat somewhere else." I snapped. "Now leave me alone."

Millicent Bulstrode walked by and looked between me and Pansy. "C'mon, Pansy." Millicent said in a gruff voice. "She's not moving and you don't want to have detention before class has even started." When Pansy didn't budge for a moment, Millicent grabbed her gently by the elbow and pulled her towards where Tracey and Daphne went to sit. As soon as they were gone, I sighed heavily and rubbed my temples.

It was going to get worse before any of this got better, I thought grimly.

The final amount of students trickled in and no one really sat near me. There was enough space between me and some random seventh year for another person to sit there. And no one was sitting directly in front of me, but someone was in front of that seventh year. I didn't know either of them and they didn't acknowledge me sitting there. I went back to picking at the corner of my napkin until the professors filed in and took their seats at their table.

As the first years were brought in and they were sorted, I kept picking at the napkin and barely paid attention, only really noticing when the new Slytherins came to the table and were hissed and booed at by some from the other houses. Did no one else see this as a problem? I glared up at the professor's table and wondered if they even had an opinion on it or even if they cared.

That welcome back feast was the loneliest one yet, and it didn't help that every now and then I'd glance up at see the others houses mingling and catching up with each other. At the Hufflepuff table, I spotted Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott giggling excitedly about something. If I strained my neck a bit, I could see Ginny Weasley sitting with the new first years of Gryffindor. I glanced down my own table and saw the first years all talking to each other, many with smiles on their faces.

I caught a glimpse of Daphne looking extremely troubled and near tears. Tracey had her arm wrapped around her friend's shoulders and was trying to comfort her, along with Pansy, Millicent, and Blaise. I frowned and couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with Daphne, and why she was upset.

When the feast was over, I barely paid attention to Dumbledore's speech, only tuning in when the headmaster said that the dementors will be stationed on the edge of the grounds for the school year in case some criminal decided to come and attack the school itself.

Who the hell was Sirius Black?

When the feast was over, I was the first Slytherin out of the door and I silently made my way down to the dungeons. I wanted to have a couple of minutes of peace to myself without my former friends deciding to harass me for simply being Muggle born. By the time the rest of the Slytherins made it to the common room, I was already ready for bed and tucked into my four poster bed with the curtains drawn tightly.

"The hat was wrong!" Daphne was shrieking when the third year girls entered the dormitory.

"It wouldn't be the first time the hat's made a mistake." Pansy said, and I knew she was glaring right at the curtains separating us.

I could hear footsteps pacing hard the length of the dorm room. "No, no!" Daphne went on. "She was supposed to be in Slytherin! Mother and Father are going to be furious that she's not!"

What was she talking about? I sat up in bed and frowned at the curtains, wishing I could open them and try to comfort Daphne. I heard someone with heavy footsteps move past my bed and take the bed next to mine. Millicent sighed heavily and I heard her bed move as she sat down.

"Maybe you could talk to Dumbledore about it?" Millicent offered. "I'm sure the hat makes mistakes sometimes."

There was a pause and then Tracey piped up. "I'll go with you to Dumbledore's office tomorrow morning before classes, Daphne. That way Astoria only has to stay one night with Ravenclaw, and then she can come here where she belongs."

Understanding hit me and I wanted to roll my eyes into the back of my head. Daphne's younger sister, Astoria, must've been sorted into Ravenclaw. I was about to think of how unreasonable Daphne was being when she let out a big shuddering sob.

"You don't understand!" Daphne sobbed. "My parents have always said that-that if we were sorted into any house other than Slytherin they'd disown us! They'll be so furious that she's not in Slytherin!"

The terror in Daphne's voice was real, regardless of the initial dismissiveness I had felt. Would Daphne's parents really disown Astoria for not being sorted into Slytherin? I reached out to open the curtain and voice my concerns for my friend's little sister, but stopped myself just before I could. On the other side, I could hear Daphne crying and Pansy and Tracey comforting her. I rested my chin on my knees and the loneliness that had been eating away at my gut got worse.

It took a very long time to go to sleep that night, and I didn't sleep until the sounds of my roommates snoring filled the air and echoed around the room. The floor length window showing the lake sent ripples of light across the ceiling. I fell asleep watching those ripples of underwater light until I finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning I got up around the time when everyone was leaving. Pansy was already gone and so were Tracey and Daphne. Millicent ripped a brush through her hair and watched me through narrowed eyes as I got dressed and ready for the day.

"I met a cousin of mine over the summer." Millicent suddenly said. I blinked at her and she continued on. "It was a sort of, aren't you happy we're not them kind of meeting. My parents do that kind of thing every now and then for me and my siblings."

I stared at her, wondering where the hell this was coming from. Millicent didn't seem interested in my response because she went right on. "Turns out the reason my family is so distant with this cousin is because he was sorted into Gryffindor when he was here at Hogwarts. A Gryffindor! One out of generations of pure blood Slytherins. I told him about you, how you're a Mudblood that got sorted into Slytherin. And you know what he told me? He said that then there was probably a reason for you to be here. He told me he begged Professor Dumbledore to put him in Slytherin instead.

"The hat has legilimency, so it knows you enough to put you in the right house the first time." Millicent paused and finally stared hard at me with thoughtful eyes. "I don't like that you're here, Mudblood. But if the hat thinks you're a Slytherin, then you're a Slytherin." And with that, she shouldered her bag and stalked out of the room. I stared after her and breathed a heavy sigh, the first in what felt like a very long time.


End file.
